KARAK, Aug 5: The president of Mazdoor Kissan Party, Afzal Khamosh, has said the grand peace jirga between Pakistan and Afghanistan could not succeed until the US and foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

He was speaking at a workers’ convention of the party at the town hall here on Sunday. MKP provincial general secretary Rehmanullah Siddiqui, district president Qadir Shireen and other leaders also spoke on the occasion.

Mr Khamosh criticised the government’s decision to send a delegation to attend the Pak-Afghan jirga, saying that the war in Afghanistan was not a fight among Pukhtuns living along the border of the two countries. Rather it was a war between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

He alleged that the US was involved in the killing of Chinese nationals in Hub, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar, and it also encouraged suicide attacks in Pakistan to destabilise the government and increase its influence in Gwadar and other important parts of the country.

He criticised Gen Pervez Musharraf, saying that after the 9/11 incident he extended every support to the US over a single telephone call of President Bush.