May 03, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, May 2: A high-powered Pakistan-Afghanistan Jirga Commission will meet in Kabul on Thursday to discuss common problems like security, fencing of the border, movement of terrorists and repatriation of Afghan refugees, the spokesman for the interior ministry and the Director-General of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC), Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, has said.

In a weekly briefing on Wednesday, he said the Pakistani Jirga Commission led by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao would leave for Kabul on Thursday morning and return on Friday.

Other members of the Jirga are: NWFP Governor A.M.J. Aurakzai, Governor Balochistan Awais Ahmed Ghani, Federal Minister for State and Frontier Region Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind and Federal Minister for Culture Dr Syed Gulab Jamal.

The Afghan Jirga Commission is headed by Pir Said Ahmed Gillani and its other members are Haji Muhammad Muhaqaq, Fazl Hadi Shanwari, Ms Ameena Afzai, Haji Din Muhammad, Fazl Ahmed Manawi, Hassan Takhari, Abdul Khaliq Hussani, Asadullah Wafa and Farooq Vardak.

In order to prepare itself for the joint meeting in Afghanistan, Pakistani Jirga met in the interior ministry and finalised its programme and agenda. Following the meeting Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah called on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to inform him about the agenda of the joint meeting.

In a statement issued by the interior ministry, Mr Sherpao said the last meeting which was held in Islamabad on March 10 was successful as it helped the two sides understand their points of view. This week’s meeting would help forge a joint mechanism for avoiding untoward incidents in future.

He said at the last meeting, convened by Pakistan, both sides reaffirmed their resolve to hold Jirgas as one of the measures to counter terrorism and to work for eliminating the menace from the affected areas.

The second round of talks of Pakistan and Afghanistan Jirga commissions was previously scheduled for April 8 but due to certain reasons the meeting was delayed for a month.

The two countries formed their Jirga Commissions after Kabul opposed mining and fencing the border which according to Pakistan government was necessary to stop cross border movement of terrorists.