Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday decided to jointly fight terrorism with a follow-up strategy of reconciliation with their "adversaries" ? an indirect reference to the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ? as the four-day peace jirga ends today (Sunday). Delegates at joint jirga's Working Committee No 2 recommended a joint campaign against "centres of supporting, training and arming terrorist activities," according to a document obtained by Daily Times. | But there aren't any in Pakistain, mind you... |
All recommendations of the five working committees will be submitted to the Executive Committee of the joint Pakistan-Afghanistan peace jirga, which can adopt, make changes or reject them. "The Executive Committee will discuss all the recommendations and approve or disapprove the recommendations," Rustam Shah Mohmand, Pakistani consultant for the jirga, told Daily Times.
According to jirga officials, the 40-member committee will meet once a month to monitor the decisions reached at the jirga. "The committee will report the implementation of the decisions to their respective governments," Gilani said.
Another working committee recommended that people sheltering terrorists must be punished by their respective governments. "Whoever gives sanctuary to a terrorist or supports him should be identified and punished by the government authorities concerned," a recommendation of Working Committee No 3 stated. It also suggested that the two governments should "appoint official representatives in each madrassa to ensure these are not used for extremism and terrorism". "The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan should strengthen controls to regulate funding to madrassas, including regular external accounting of the financing of madrassas," it recommended. "The intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan should help identify terrorists' sanctuaries in each other's country," another recommendation said.
Working Committee No 1 disagreed on the issue of interference in each other's affairs, so there was no recommendation for Pakistan to give Afghanistan access to Indian markets. President Musharraf, meanwhile, agreed "in principle" to address the concluding session of the jirga after a phone call from President Karzai, AFP reported.