PESHAWAR: A full-house Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly committee on Tuesday decided to constitute a sub-committee for the implementation of a 27-point charter of demands presented by the Pashtun Qaumi Jirga for peace and development in the tribal region.

The committee met in the main hall of the assembly, with Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in the chair and around 45 lawmakers from the treasury and opposition benches in attendance.

Speaker Babar Saleem Swati had formed the full-house committee after the conclusion of the jirga, which was held from October 11 to 13 in Khyber district over the issue related to Pakhtun areas under the patronage of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement.

The sub-committee will comprise treasury and opposition members, a minister told Dawn.

Treasury, opposition members will make up panel

He said the chief minister would soon notify the committee, with its first meeting being held within a week.

The minister said that all sub-committee members would present suggestions about PQJ demands from their party’s perspective for discussion at provincial and federal government levels.

He said that participants of the full-house committee meeting condemned the government’s act of declaring PTM a proscribed organisation, insisting that if democratic forces worked within the framework of the Constitution and laws, they should not be suppressed.

The main demand of the PQJ was restoration of peace in the tribal region.

In a declaration, the jirga had said there should no longer be unrest or war in tribal districts.

The jirga also urged the army and armed groups to leave the region in two months’ time and warned if that didn’t happen, then the jirga would make its own arrangements to remove any forces continuing to wage war on this land.

Regarding “militarisation, war damages and human rights violation” in the tribal region, the declaration said that the jirga had decided that all internally displaced persons and refugees in KP would set the time for return to their villages, with it and Pakhtun nation supporting them. It added that no further military operation would be acceptable in the Pakhtun belt.

The jirga has resolved to collectively gather representatives to advocate for the martyrs of this land, missing persons, and those whose land have been seized “This jirga will take up these issues in local courts, advocating for missing persons, martyrs, and the entire nation,” read the declaration.

It added that the jirga would bring the cases of disappeared, martyrs and seized lands to the international forum, including the International Criminal Court and United Nations.

The jirga also called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including individuals recently detained in connection with its activities, including Ali Wazir.

It demanded immediate removal of the ban on Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, and called for a new social contract, which, it said, will be enforced by Pakhtun leaders in alignment with their collective well.

Other PQJ demands mentioned in the declaration included control over natural resources, electricity rights, royalties and benefits, water rights, provision of due aid, open borders for trade and easement rights, an end to extortion, the right to education for women in Afghanistan, a ban on compensatory marriages, solidarity with Pakhtun diaspora, resolution of tribal conflicts, immediate issuance of national identity cards, and the formation of a judicial commission for martyrs.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2025