Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has agreed in principle to address the closing session of the Pakistani-Afghan Joint Peace Jirga, aimed at stopping violence and combating terrorism in tribal areas straddling on the border, a foreign ministry statement said in Islamabad Friday night.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai telephoned President Musharraf on Friday evening and invited him to attend the closing session of the Joint Peace Jirga, said the statement.
Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam has confirmed this with a local private TV channel in a live telephone interview.
The statement did say exactly when the closing session of the joint jirga, or council meeting of tribal elders, would be held, while the DAWN NEWS TV channel Friday said it would be on Aug. 12.
Musharraf had called Karzai Wednesday to inform that because of "engagements" in Islamabad he could not personally attend the jirga in Kabul, according to a foreign ministry statement issued that day. Instead, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz representing Pakistan addressed the inaugural session on Thursday.
The president's surprise absence notice Wednesday was followed by a widespread local TV report that Pakistani leadership is considering imposing a state of emergency in the country, which once caused shocking impact on politicians at home and abroad.
Musharraf, through the Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, said Thursday afternoon that emergency is not being imposed in the country and all speculations and rumors about it are un-founded.
The president said that the present situation does not necessitate enforcement of emergency in the country, according to Durrani.
The statement was apparently welcomed by local media and some politicians, who feared that the emergency, once imposed, would mean the delay of the expected general elections and also the suspension of some fundamental rights of common citizens, including freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of speech.
Pakistan Friday confirmed that the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to President Pervez Musharraf over phone on Thursday and discussed the Joint Peace Jirga being held in Kabul.
Rice also referred to the media reports about imposition of emergency and she was told that there was no such plan and media reports were speculative, according to a statement by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.
An around 300-strong Pakistani team including several federal ministers are currently in the multi-day discussions of joint jirga in Kabul, while there are 350 people from Afghan side.
The joint jirga emerged as a follow-up to an agreement reached by Musharraf and Karzai at a meeting hosted by U.S. President George W Bush at the White House in September 2006.
Authorities in the two countries had agreed to hold joint Jirga to eliminate insurgency in their tribal areas along the border and curtail illegal cross-border movements.
Before leaving for the meeting, Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday the emphasis of the jirga meeting would be made on peace by seeking the ways and means to eliminate extremism and terrorism from the region.
But local media doubted that the jirga would produce desired results as Afghan Taliban were not included in the talks, and tribal leaders from Pakistan's Wazirsitan tribal region, an alleged restive place with active militancy, also boycotted the meeting.
However, analysts believe that Musharraf, if back to the jirga, definitely would be encouraging for the jirga process, just as Karzai puts.
Since joining the Washington-led war on terror in 2001, Pakistan has sent nearly 90,000 troops to hunt remnants of al- Qaida and Taliban, who sneaked into Pakistani tribal areas to seek refuge following Afghan Taliban fall.
But Afghanistan continued to accuse Pakistan of harboring Taliban and al-Qaida members and lending a blind eye to illegal movement of militants. Pakistan categorically rejected the claims.
Saying it has done the best to stop fighters' cross-border movement, Pakistan calls for increased efforts of concerned parts in stopping violence along the 2,500 km-long Pakistani-Afghan border.
Pakistani officials said militancy and terrorism problems could not be resolved through only military activities, suggesting that a holistic strategy comprising political dialogue, economic and social improvement initiatives should be considered.
Source: Xinhua
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