PESHAWAR, April 30: The government on Friday agreed to give another week to parliamentarians from tribal areas to persuade militants to facilitate the registration of their foreign comrades in the South Waziristan tribal region, sources told Dawn.

The extension was given at a meeting in Islamabad attended by, among others, Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, the two tribal parliamentarians from South Waziristan, Maulana Mirajuddin and Maulana Abdul Malik, Secretary (security) Fata Brig. Mehmood Shah and the newly-posted administrator, Asmatullah Gandapur, on Thursday.

The latest extension comes after the expiry of the previous deadline on Friday, announced by the Peshawar Corps Commander, at a meeting in Shakai in South Waziristan on April 24, the day he pardoned five most wanted tribal militants.

Sources in Waziristan said the extension was granted on the request of the two parliamentarians who had sought more time to talk to the militants to persuade their foreign guests to register themselves with the government in line with the amnesty announced by President Pervez Musharraf.

These sources, however, claimed that even the one-week deadline was tentative and was meant only for internal working to evaluate the progress made on the registration of foreign militants initially believed to be between 500 and 600.

Officials, however, now claim the figure might have dropped as most of the foreign militants have left the area or have crossed over into neighbouring Afghanistan. The sources said that the parliamentarians, who had helped broker the deal between the government and the tribal militants, had argued that the 'deadline' served with sword hanging over their head and hampered their working.

"The one-week deadline extension is for internal evaluation of the progress made on the foreign militant front but in no way should it mean to be a cut-off date. In effect, there is no deadline," insisted one source with access to the parliamentarians.

He said that the parliamentarians and the administrator had been told to 'get down to work' immediately and had been dispatched to the volatile region to take tribal elders into confidence, arrange for guarantees from those sheltering foreign militants, provide their lists to the government and get them registered.

The source acknowledged that influential tribal elders were miffed over being left out in the 'reconciliation' agreement with militants brokered through the clerics-turned-parliamentarians and, therefore, a need was felt to get them back into the process.

One source said that Nek Muhammad, a leading militant among the five pardoned by the government, had conveyed to the government his willingness to help with the registration of foreign militants under his patronage.

This source claimed that Nek had also promised to furnish the required guarantees of future good conduct on their behalf and an undertaking that they would not use Pakistani soil against any foreign country.

The source said he was confident the government and the tribal militants would come to some sort of an arrangement on the registration of foreign militants given their reservations over being photographed. An official source, however, insisted that the government had made it clear it would resort to force if foreign militants did not take advantage of the amnesty offer.

He reminded that the Peshawar Corps Commander in his speech on April 24 had warned of resuming military operation if foreign militants hiding in the tribal region refused to get themselves registered with the authorities.

The source said that the tribal parliamentarians made certain demands at the Thursday meeting but were told in unequivocal terms that the government had done enough on its part and would now want the tribes to deliver before it could agree to give more.