PESHAWAR, Aug 7: At least 169 tribal elders will leave Peshawar for Kabul on Wednesday to attend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Grand Jirga. All participants of the jirga nominated from the NWFP and Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) attended on Tuesday a brainstorming session held at the Governor’s House. Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai briefed them on the purpose and aims of the grand jirga.

Sixty members belonging to the Waziristan region have decided to boycott the jirga.

Informed sources said that during the briefing, the governor conceded that the Pakistani delegation was less prepared for the event than the Afghan side. He said the Pakistani participants should be ready to counter the charges which will be levelled by the Afghan side during the jirga.

“You should be mentally prepared. If Afghan delegates level charges against Pakistan for the ongoing insurgency in their country, you will have to counter these allegations,” the sources quoted Mr Aurakzai as saying.

“You can argue that Pakistan had been suffering for the last 27 years due to the Afghan conflict. You can tell them that Pakistan had been facing the menace of heroin, terrorism, due to the situation in Afghanistan,” the governor said.