Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ISLAMABAD1607
2007-04-11 13:20:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Islamabad
Cable title:
INTERIOR MINISTER OUTLINES NEXT STEPS FOR
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C O N F I D E N T I A L ISLAMABAD 001607
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/11/2017
TAGS: PREL PK AF
SUBJECT: INTERIOR MINISTER OUTLINES NEXT STEPS FOR
PAK-AFGHAN JIRGAS
REF: ISLAMABAD 1331 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Peter Bodde, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L ISLAMABAD 001607
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/11/2017
TAGS: PREL PK AF
SUBJECT: INTERIOR MINISTER OUTLINES NEXT STEPS FOR
PAK-AFGHAN JIRGAS
REF: ISLAMABAD 1331 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Peter Bodde, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)
¶1. (C) During an April 10 meeting with Deputy Assistant
Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs John Gastright
SIPDIS
and the Charge, Minister of Internal Affairs and Chairman of
Pakistan's Jirga Commission Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said
that the Pak-Afghan Jirga Commission meeting scheduled for
9-11 April in Kabul had been postponed. The Interior Minister
needed to be in Pakistan to deal with events in Islamabad at
the Jamia Hafsa Madrassa (septel),sectarian violence in
Kurram Agency, and anti-Uzbek fighting in Wana.
¶2. (C) Sherpao said that no new date had been set for the
Commission to meet, but he was optimistic that the process
would move forward quickly once both sides approved the list
of participants. Pakistan's list was complete, he said, and
included tribal elders, politicians, cultural figures,
journalists, and academics, mostly from the border areas of
Northwest Frontier Province and Balochistan. Participants
from Punjab and Sindh would be granted observer status only,
as these provinces did not share a border with Afghanistan
and did not have a jirga tradition. Sherpao said that he had
not seen Afghanistan's participant list yet, but anticipated
that it would be a national list.
¶3. (C) Sherpao reiterated his belief that small jirgas along
the Pak-Afghan border would have been a more effective
approach to solving border area security problems, but went
on to add that there would be value in allowing both sides to
discuss the value of cooperation on economic and development
issues in a large forum.
¶4. (C) Once both sides agree to one another's participant
lists, Pakistan will gather its participants together to
brief them on the goals for the jirga and how to avoid
potential problems, Sherpao said. Once both sides are ready,
the first round of the jirga will likely be in Kabul, Sherpao
predicted.
BODDE