August 13, 2007	Monday	Rajab 28, 1428

NOWSHERA, Aug 12: Former interior minister Naseerullah Baber has said that the Pakistan-Afghanistan joint jirga will serve no purpose since the ‘real stakeholders’ from the tribal belt were not included in it.

Addressing a news conference here on Sunday, the People’s Party Parliamentarians leader said the US-sponsored jirga had failed to come up with any concrete political programme to promote peace on both sides of the Durand Line. Tribal elders from Waziristan, Bajaur and Mohmand agencies boycotted the jirga. The Taliban, Gulbadine Hekmatyar and other jihadi leaders also did not attend the jirga, he said, adding that it was nothing but a mock show and an exercise in futility.

He said the security situation could not be improved by bombing Pukhtoon villages on either side of the border and that negotiations were the only way forward to establish peace in the region.

He said the “US has recognised the identity and political clout of the Taliban by inviting them to the jirga, which amounted to the confession of defeat on the US part, for it had never accepted the Taliban as a party to the Afghan conflict.”

He said Gen Musharraf, who was reluctant to participate in the jirga at first, attended its closing session only on the “orders” of the event organisers (the US administration).