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Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to form grand jirga

LAHORE: Pakistani and Afghan officials agreed at a meeting in Kabul on Thursday to form a jirga (tribal council) of 300 to 350 people from each side to improve bilateral relations, Geo television reported.

According to the channel, the Pak-Afghan Jirga Commission meeting had been scheduled for two days, but later Afghan officials changed the schedule and reduced it to one day. Briefing the media about the meeting, both Pakistani and Afghan officials said that they had agreed to form a jirga of tribal elders, journalists, intellectuals and parliament members from both sides. The channel said that Pakistan had handed Afghan officials a list of people it wanted to include in the jirga.

To a question about the objectives of the jirga, officials from both sides said that the jirga would help improve people-to-people contact between the two countries and build trust between the neighbours, which had been trading allegations of cross-border terrorism amid surging Taliban insurgency. The channel also reported that both countries would make a working committee to formulate an agenda for the jirga. The Pakistani delegation, led by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, will call on Afghan President Hamid Karzai today (Friday), the channel said.

AFP adds: Sherpao also told reporters in Kabul late on Thursday that Afghanistan and Pakistan had finalised lists of about 350 people each to attend a joint jirga to tackle the Taliban insurgency. The two sides are now working on the details of the agenda for the meeting, the first of its kind. daily times monitor

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