PESHAWAR: The grand tribal jirga will tackle the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan according to ‘rewaj’ (tribal tradition) and they will not register with the government, a senior member of the jirga told Daily Times by phone from Miranshah. He said tribal tradition says that elders and clerics would guarantee the foreigner’s good conduct to the government and added that registration of foreigners was not on the jirga’s agenda. “What the jirga will decide at the end of the day will be based on tribal tradition,” he said. The tribal elder said the jirga hoped to broker peace in North Waziristan by the end of August. The jirga returned from Miranshah after a weeklong stay in North Waziristan and is scheduled to meet Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday (August 7). “We met civil and military officials and shura (council) leaders of the Taliban in Miranshah. Both sides appear willing to reach a negotiated settlement,” he said.
He said the army’s hesitance to free the remaining militants was worrying the jirga. “We have told the government that peace cannot be discussed with the militants while it is holding their men,” he added. An official source in Miranshah said the release of the remaining prisoners was delayed because the government “did not want to play all its cards” before a substantial achievement was made. He said the Taliban also seemed ready to accept the government’s most stringent condition – stopping cross-border infiltration. “I think the US airstrike in Damadola (Bajaur tribal region) was a good lesson for the militants.