A jirga (tribal council) of parliamentarians and tribal elders from Pakistan's tribal area decided on Saturday to convene a Tribal Peace Conference soon to discuss peace and the expulsion of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida elements from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

A member of the upper house of Pakistan's parliament, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, told the media that the basic objective of the conference would be to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation. He said that proper utilization of developmental projects the participation of tribesmen is such projects would also part of the agenda.

Hameedullah Jan said that the prevention of interference with political parties, the elimination tribal feuds, amendments to the black law of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), the empowerment of the traditional tribal jirga (tribal council) and strengthening the role of social organizations would also be discussed.
Presently, foreign countries are donating billions of rupees for development in the tribal areas but the local people know nothing about how and where this amount is being spent. The jirga was told that if the law and order situation were compared with the rest of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the situation looked much better except in South and North Waziristan and the Bara sub-division of Khyber.

The jirga was informed that the growing activities of terrorism and extremism in NWFP were far worse. In the districts of Charsadda, Mardan, Swat, Bannu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, suicide bombing incidents, bomb attacks on music stores and girls' schools have increased during the last few months.

Hameedullah Jan said that a 12-member working committee had been formed to convene the Tribal Peace Conference. A meeting of this committee will be held on May 12.

Seven members of parliaments from the tribal areas, as well as tribal elders, lawyers, social workers and representatives from the Tribal Chamber of Commerce and Industry participated in the jirga.

This is the first time that tribal elders have taken the initiative on their own to improve law and order in the tribal areas.

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