The present and much-debated Loya Jirga is the sixth edition of its kind, being held under the democratic setup headed by President Hamid Karzai. In old times, when tribal leaders had great influence on the affairs of state and there was present only a King and not a representative parliament to make decisions,  tribal leaders assembled whenever there came any problem and discussed the matter for many days until they reached upon a consensus and a unified decision was made. It is the reason why, these gatherings were named as Grand Tribal Commission and in such gatherings, the discussions continued until a best decision or solution was chosen for the problem under consideration. It was effective due to a numerous reasons. First, the problem was discussed thoroughly and all its pros and cons were pondered upon and thus the decision taken was usually perfect while the decision taken by a single person (the king) could have ignored some relevant issues of the problem. It was equally necessary when there was not present any legislative body that should be the representative of people as is found in our present day democracies in form of lower houses of the parliament. Second, as the decision was taken and accepted by all so everyone obeyed and followed it without any objection and this trait of decisions taken by Loya Jirga was outstandingly remarkable.

But present day Loya Jirgas can never be compared to those that existed in past. They were according to the demands of their time and were really successful. Especially, these jirgas were very effective in settling a conflict between two tribes. In the presence of a large number of tribal elders, both the tribes, either willingly or reluctantly, accepted the decision of the elders and the problem finished forever. Moreover, it is also one of the historic traditions of Afghan society that in past, all the major issues and conflicts were resolved in these tribal chiefs’ gatherings. Keeping in view the above effective features of Loya Jirga, our democratic government also held these Jirgas in past whenever it confronted any serious conflict or decision.

Now, it is known to all that the prime agenda of this Jirga is to decide upon the fate of BSA (Bilateral Security Agreement) between the governments of Afghanistan and America that would decide upon the terms of stay of American forces after the exit of NATO forces in 2014. After the international forces announced their exit in 2014, it badly affected Afghanistan and Afghans. As the threat of Taliban still exists so this announcement filled the hearts of Afghans with fears of their return. It is a general understanding that majority of Afghans are not in favor of the complete exit of foreign forces. In such circumstances, United States announced that it would leave some of its forces that would not only help the Afghan forces to control the security of the country but would also make sure that Taliban and other terrorist elements should not disparage the democratic setup of the country. With this announcement, there came some normality in the country, otherwise, majority of good brains and businessmen had started preparing to escape out of the country. Anyhow, this agreement would decide upon the authority of American forces that would stay in the country after 2014. As this is a critical decision to be taken, so for this reason, government found it appropriate to call upon the elders of country and come up with a unified decision.

But in the presence of an active parliament where elected representatives of people are sitting to make legislation and decide upon such major issues, questions arise if such an informal setup of legislation is legal or not. As mentioned earlier, these jirgas were held in past when there was not present any parliament and it was feared that decision taken by a single person or King might be wrong but when we have a parliament that is capable of taking decisions and doing legislation, all these seem to be both unnecessary and inappropriate.

It also seems inappropriate when the scale of its harm is analyzed. In this year’s Jirga, some 3000 participants are going to participate from different corners of the country and of course, outside the country. According to informed sources, all of these participants are given with a handsome money for their time and efforts which ranges from minimum 600 to many thousands dollars. Similarly, they are also given with two-way air-tickets for their journey and a lot of money has been spent on their logging and dining facilities. Similarly, there is also present the huge expense of security, advertisement and others and it is estimated that the cost of this jirga might exceed hundreds of millions of dollars which is of course, a great blow to the feeble economy of the country which depends on other nations for meeting its different needs.

We have also witnessed that the arrangements made especially the ones related with the security measures have in fact crippled the routine functioning of the city. Many of the roads and streets have been blocked and northern part of the city has been completely cut off from the rest. These security measures were intensified after the suicide attack which claimed the lives of almost a dozen people, majority of whom were neutral citizens. These intensified security measures created innumerable traffic problems in different parts of the city and traffic jams of many hours were witnessed on a number of the roads of the city. Many patients could not reach to the hospital on time and people reached very late to their offices and students to their educational institutes. It looked as if concerned authorities did not have any coordinated plan in this regard and all these greatly added to the miseries o f common public. It was the reason why, majority of common people are found to be talking against this Jirga.

At the same time, it has also affected the economic activities of the capital city and the size of economic transactions shrank considerably in the present and last week. Having a look at all these negative factors, this Jirga can never be called a successful attempt, whatever may be the end result of this.

Similarly, people who are participating in this jirga can never be called to be the representatives of people. In this jirga, usually an area is represented by a chief who is either rich or has a strong group of informal army or militia who can knock anyone down who dares to resist them. It is the reason why, majority of the participants are found to be illiterate or not having enough intellectual knowledge and skills to give good views and it is feared that same kind of decision may come out of their discussions. At the same time, all the good brains like writers, intellectuals and thinkers of the society have been ignored in this gathering as they don’t have any influence in their tribal areas and majority of them reside in the capital city of Kabul.

Anyhow, with all these negative and positive aspects, let’s all pray together that this gathering should end without demanding anymore blood and also give any fruitful and clear result.