Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

President May Manipulate Powers Conferred on Him by Peace Jirga: Experts

President May Manipulate Powers  Conferred on Him by Peace Jirga: Experts

KABUL - The Peace Jirga was launched on April 29 continued till May 3 and issued a final 23-point statement on its fifth and last day.
The Jirga stressed over intra-Afghan talks and asked the government and the Taliban to enter a ceasefire.
The grand assembly of elders suggested to the president to control the peace talks from one unified address and form a negotiating team.
But looking at the 11th and 18th points of the statement of Consultative Peace Jirga, expert believed the president conferred huge powers which might be manipulated for political gains.
The 18th point of the statement demanded the creation of a delegation to lead peace negotiations with the Taliban. Certain characteristics, numbers and other specialties of the participants had been explained in details.
But Political Expert Ghulam Jilani Zwak told Pajhwok Afghan News the president may manipulate this point for political advantage.
He said the Jirga gave the power of creating a negotiating team to the government instead of an intra-Afghan delegation.
“If we think deeply, the resident with a joy told the participants of Jirga that he will decide the team of negotiators and other related issues. The purpose of worth $5 million Jirga was to bring the entire peace process under his control,” he said.
Kabul University Lecturer Musa Fariwar said: “Article 18 of the statement carried hidden agenda of the government and the government want to pick their own people for the team of negotiators under this article.”
But Abdul Rashid Ayubi, spokesman of the Peace Jirga, said: “Those who could better represent the system protect the national interest and values of Afghanistan will be able to represent the government in peace talks.”
People who claim government monopoly say that president manipulated the cabinet, ministries and produces wrong interpretations of the situation.
Analysts also criticized the article 11th of the communique.
The article 11th of the communique says that members of the Loya Jirga want political parties and processes, politicians and influential figures of the country to get advantage of the current political consensus for peace in the country and enter from a single and Afghanistan inclusive address to intra-Afghan peace talks.
Zwak said, “The government tries to stop meetings such as the Afghan politicians’ dialogues with the Taliban representatives in Moscow by what it emphasis on intra-Afghan talks, the government’s presence in Moscow meeting was very limited, the government tries to colonize such initiatives,”
Farior, pointing to the article 11th of communique, said, “This article has both negative and positive sides, if the Taliban get prepared to directly talk with the government it will help sporadic efforts to become managed and solve the problem, but the Taliban do not accept that the government will have central role in talks,”
“Some of the articles of the communique indicate that the governmetn tries to get advantage of peace talks similar like the Taliban who do not want to talk with the government, unfortunately there are no flexibilities of negotiating with the Taliban in these articles which is a hurdle to negotiations,” he said.
However, Ayubi said that it was up to the Taliban if they talk with foreigners but they had to talk with the Afghan government as well.
Mohammad Mosa Ferior said that the president was given more authorities in the communique which he said was a demand of the government.
“This communique show that the government intentionally wanted to have its own presence in it and get political advantage of it,” he said. (Pajhwok)