JUI-F chief shares peace plan with North Waziristan tribe

Fazlur Rehman says change of govt won’t affect grand jirga’s workings.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman shared details of a peace initiative for Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the Uthmanzai tribesmen of North Waziristan. The initiative, according to Maulana Fazl, is to be facilitated through a grand jirga.

Maulana Fazl gave details of the all parties conference (APC) hosted by the JUI-F on February 28 that had declared its trust in a more expansive grand tribal jirga and tasked its members with immediately engaging all ‘concerned parties,’ including the Taliban, for the sake of peace in the country.

The jirga meeting was held at Wazir Garden, Hakim Khan Kot, Dera Ismail Khan on Monday after the Uthmanzai tribe (Wazir and Dawar) had demanded the JUI-F chief to explain his peace initiatives for the region.

“...following their demands, I told them the details of the JUI-F jirga, the APC and the initiative for the peace process in Fata,” the JUI-F chief said after the meeting.

Allaying concerns of the tribe regarding the support of a government, he said that this jirga is not dependent on the change of government because constitutionally the chief executive of Fata was the president of Pakistan and not the PM.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.