ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will address the joint jirga scheduled to be held from Aug 9 to 11 in Kabul. “We hope this jirga will be successful and will help in bringing peace and stability to the region,” interior ministry spokesman Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema said at a weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

He said Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao was in Kabul to see the arrangements. Jirga members would leave for Kabul on Wednesday.

The jirga, which will have 350 members from each side, will discuss strengthening of bilateral relations on the basis of good neighbourliness, respect for territorial integrity and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

It will discuss factors and circumstances which contribute to the spread of terrorism and militancy and try to devise a joint mechanism to combat terrorism.

Brig Cheema claimed that the government knew the perpetrators and masterminds of recent suicide attacks and would soon bring them to justice.

He said investigations into F-8 Markaz and Aabpara Market blasts were moving in the right direction. Some clues had been found in the July 17 F-8 Markaz blast, he said.