PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s peace jirga will be held at the provincial assembly here today (Wednesday) to discuss the volatile law and order situation in the province.

In a statement, special assistant to the chief minister on information Shafi Jan said during a visit to the provincial assembly that the KP government had convened the biggest jirga in the province’s history to restore peace.

He said that leadership of all political parties would attend the jirga, which would make a joint statement and recommendations for peace.

Mr Jan said that the jirga would prove a milestone for peace efforts.

Speaker of the KP Assembly Babar Saleem Swati, local government minister Meena Khan Afridi, Opposition Leader in the KP Assembly Dr Ibadullah and lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl on Tuesday announced that it would attend the peace jirga.

In a statement issued here, spokesman for the JUI-F Abdul Jalil Jan said that his party would participate in the peace jirga convened by the speaker of the provincial assembly.

He said that JUI-F provincial emir Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman and provincial general secretary Senator Maulana Attaul Haq Dervesh would represent the party in the jirga, along with the party’s members of the provincial assembly.

Meanwhile, in a video statement, Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary leader in the KP Assembly Ahmad Kareem Kundi hailed the decision to hold the peace jirga and said the poor law and order situation was the biggest issue faced by the province.

He said that political parties had held jirgas for peace but for the first time, a jirga was being held at the KP Assembly, which represented the will of 40 million of the province.

Mr Kundi said he hoped that the initiative would significantly contribute to the restoration of peace in the province.

A spokesperson for the Jamaat-i-Islami’s KP chapter told Dawn that party leaders Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and former senior minister Inayatullah Khan would represent the party in the peace moot.

On Monday, Awami National Party (ANP) announced that its KP president Mian Iftikhar Hussain would attend the peace jirga. The decision to hold the jirga to discuss the province’s volatile law and order situation was made earlier this month during a consultative meeting of the ruling party.

Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi and PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar jointly chaired the meeting.

The PTI leadership decided that all parties would be invited to participate in the moot so that the province’s political leadership could be united on a single platform for ensuring lasting peace and stability in the province.

The meeting also decided that heads, presidents and general secretaries of all political parties in the province, former chief ministers, former governors, representatives of civil society and the dignitaries of the KP Bar Association would be invited to participate in the moot.

The provincial government’s representatives have already approached political parties and lawyer and journalist bodies with formal invitations to attend the jirga.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025