PESHAWAR, Jan 23: NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai on Tuesday pardoned a fine and returned Rs5 million imposed on the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe after its elders presented rams as an expression of apology for last year’s attack on a jirga in Wana.

A handout said that the governor had accepted the Nanawati (as the gesture is known in the Pukhtun tribal code) offered by the South Waziristan Agency tribesmen and waived the fine imposed by the agency’s administration on the tribe under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR).

Under Pukhtun tribal traditions, the offending tribe or individual presented rams to the aggrieved party to seek forgiveness or show repentance over an act. Normally, the aggrieved party accepted the Nanawati as it is an important principle of the unwritten social code known as ‘Pukhtoonwali’.

The handout said that MNA from the North Waziristan Agency Maulana Abdul Malik and political agent Hussain Zada also accompanied the jirga members, who called on Mr Aurakzai at the Governor’s House.

On behalf of the jirga, Sarwar Khan Yargul Khel stated that the people who had committed the cowardly act had done so in pursuit of their own hidden agenda. However, since the act had been committed in the territory of the Ahmadzai Wazirs, they accepted the responsibility.

It said that in keeping with traditions, the Wazir tribesmen had come to offer an apology.