PESHAWAR, Aug 11: The Pakistan People’s Party has said that the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Jirga will not help improve the deteriorating law and order situation unless Islamabad consulted all major political parties on the issue.

Talking to Dawn here, PPP provincial president Rahimdad Khan said the government had turned a national issue into a tribal one, where only maliks and serving bureaucrats were taking decisions on how to manage a security problem that was slipping out of the hands of Nato forces. He stressed that the government should consult the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and other major parties to resolve the issue.

Mr Khan said the PPP and PML (N) had twice ruled the country and were capable of tackling the security issues. He accused the government of making the jirga a ‘tribal show’ by nominating its favourites who would have to follow the official agenda dictated by bureaucrats.

The PPP during its tenure, he said, had cordial relations with the ruling Taliban leaders in Kabul. He claimed that the Taliban had never been a problem since their rise to power in Afghanistan and said they had in fact played a positive role in bringing peace to the war-ravaged country. He said the PPP desired an honourable and lasting solution of the security problems faced by the two neighbouring countries.

Mr Khan linked the abolition of terrorism to the restoration of ‘real democracy’ in the region and said the PPP had been struggling for that goal since its inception and had braved despotic regimes of the country. He said dictators had worsened the situation for the sake of their personal gains. Only an elected government could save the country and people from crises, he added.

He denied that the PPP had allotted tickets to all candidates throughout the province. He said that only a few selected candidates in certain areas had been allotted tickets.

He said: “It depends on the political situation as to who will contest the elections and who will not. The government has yet not announced the election schedule.” Some candidates want to retain their old constituencies, but the party had not yet made any decision regarding it.

Mr Khan denied that the ‘renegades’, serving under the present dictator, would be accepted back into the party fold.