Mixed reaction to grand council announcement

Afghan observers had mixed reactions to the announcement of the schedule for a 1,500 member Loya Jirga (grand assembly) to be held in June this year in the national capital Kabul. The assembly would choose Afghanistan's new transitional government.

"I am relatively optimistic, devastation of the past has changed our attitudes and people have every reason to pin hopes on any peaceful political developments," Ghulam Nabi Chaknowri told IRIN from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar bordering Afghanistan on Monday. Chaknowri, a former Afghan parliamentarian in his early eighties is one of the few living Afghans who had attended three Loya Jirgas, the last being in 1964.

"There are no major obstacles to this exercise [Loya Jirga] because it has both international backing [through the Bonn accords] and popular appeal because Afghans are exhausted of fighting," he maintained, adding that the process was the best chance to reconstitute the Afghan political process in decades. "Its never been perfect in Afghanistan and this is an extraordinary Loya Jirga held in emergency conditions," he explained.

'The Peace and Democracy Loya Jirga', as termed by the head of the independent special commission for the convening of the event, Ismail Qasimyar, would be formally convened by the country's former monarch, Muhammad Zahir Shah on 10 June for its scheduled six-day session.

Some 1,051 members would be nominated through a bottom up deliberation and consultation process. For the first time in Afghan history, women would get at least 160 seats on the council. The current Afghan administration, refugees, internally displaced people and nomads would also be represented. In a move to bolster secular politics in Afghanistan, religious leaders, who have dominated Afghan politics over the past decade only got six reserved seats on the new council.

Abdul Rashid Waziri, a former minister in the communist regime in the 80's was less optimistic about the fragile Loya Jirga process. Pointing out that a political process had little chance of success until there was national security, Waziri said that some Islamic fundamentalist political parties, particularly Burhannuddin Rabbani's Jamiat-e Islami were trying to hijack the process by bribing tribal leaders, the clergy and other prominent people around the country. "We are a very poor and deeply fragmented society, I am afraid that people with money and weapons will dominate the Loya Jirga," he said.

Waziri pointed out that the Loya Jirga couldn't’t perform miracles. "In the past, Loya Jigas were utilised for declaring war or making peace, choosing a new ruler or approving a constitution. "To tell you the truth, only Americans can guarantee political stability in my country," he concluded, adding that the international community's efforts at peacemaking and rebuilding a representative political culture in Afghanistan lagged far behind the US-led military campaign. "This is a real dilemma and I am afraid once again we will pay for it," he maintained.