Path to success: JUI-F leader says tribal jirga can bring peace

Terms ongoing negotiations between Taliban and govt a ‘bad joke’.

PESHAWAR:

The vice provincial chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Maulana Attaur Rehman, said on Monday that peace talks with the Taliban were stalled to pave the way for a military operation.

Talking to reporters following a meeting of the party’s provincial general council at its headquarters, Rehman said a tribal jirga formed by his party two years back can play a substantial role in negotiations with the Taliban.

He said JUI-F’s general council paid tributes to chief of the Wazir tribe and chairman of the tribal jirga, Malik Qadir Khan, who was killed a few weeks ago in Miranshah, North Waziristan.

He said his party has decided to hold a condolence reference in his memory at Nishtar Hall on May 30 where JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will also be present.

He said members of that peace jirga, formed in July 2012, will attend the ceremony where various political parties, including Awami National Party, Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have been invited. Rehman said the tribal jirga will be taken into confidence over the ongoing talks between the government and Taliban, which he termed a ‘bad joke’.

He said tribesmen wanted peace in their region and that all political parties of the country had mandated this jirga to play a crucial role in the peace talks. Rehman regretted that the government opted for other avenues instead of this jirga.

He said if the government was serious about the talks this tribal jirga could play an effective role in the process.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2014.