Focus on Loya Jirgah or grand council

The UN's top envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi addressed the first meeting of the commission responsible for organising an Emergency Loya Jirgah (grand council) in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday. The formal inauguration of the commission is expected to take place after Hamid Karzai, head of Afghanistan's interim government, returns to Kabul from his visit to the United States. Five weeks after the establishment of Afghanistan's new interim administration, Karzai announced the establishment of the Loya Jirgah Commission on 25 January. The 21-member independent panel of experts and elders constitutes the next step in implementing the Bonn agreement signed on 5 December outlining the country's path towards democracy. But many people involved or interested in Afghanistan are unsure of what a Loya Jirgah is and how it works. Definition "Afghanistan is not a modern state. In our tribal communities, mostly living in villages, we resolve all social economic and political matters in councils participated [in] by well-versed elders," Dr Muhammad Tahir Borgai, an expert in constitutional law and member of the newly appointed Loya Jirgah Commission, told IRIN on Sunday in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where he has lived as a refugee for the last decade. The 75 year-old former Kabul University professor added that a Loya Jirgah was held to decide on matters of national interest. "Loya Jirgah is derived from the ordinary Jirgah, but its scale, powers and jurisdiction are larger," he said. Borgai explained that there were two kinds of Loya Jirgah, one was the normal or constitutional Loya Jirgah, which was held to decide on matters of paramount importance under normal circumstances. Special or emergency Loya Jirgahs were held under untoward circumstances to resolve serious national problems. Asked what legitimacy a Loya Jirgah had, and why people accepted its decisions, he said: "Serving the national interest of Afghanistan is the lone benchmark that grants lasting legitimacy." At the height of the Second World War, in 1941, a Loya Jirgah had decided to keep Afghanistan neutral, thereby saving the country from invasion. History Living in the fashionable Hayatabad neighbourhood of Peshawar with his extended family, including many of his great-grandchildren, 81 year-old Senator Ghulam Nabi Chaknowri is one of the few living Afghans to have participated in a number of historic Loya Jirgahs. "I was very young when I attended a Loya Jirgah in 1941 that decided on Afghanistan's neutrality during the Second World War," he said. The former parliamentarian added that he had participated in the 1955 Loya Jirgah, which backed Afghanistan's decision to seek foreign development aid. Then, in 1964, he had taken part in a Loya Jirgah attended by more than 400 participants, including women, which had approved the constitution establishing the Afghan constitutional monarchy, he said proudly. Tracing the institution's historical evolution, he observed that Afghanistan was home to many civilizations and inherited traditions. "In modern history, Mir Wais Nikka [the Afghan tribal elder who founded Afghanistan by defeating the Persian Safavid empire in the early 18th century] established the first Loya Jirgah in Kandahar [southern Afghanistan] to claim independence from Iranian occupation," he said, adding that in 1747 another Loya Jirgah was held to found an Afghan empire under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Abdali. Chaknowri added that in the early 20th century, King Amanullah held a Loya Jirgah to give the Central Asian country its first constitution, in 1924. "The Loya Jirgahs I participated in were independent, truly reflecting the will of the people," he said, adding that although communist regimes convened many such events, they lacked popular backing. The Commission The Bonn agreement on Afghanistan's political future outlined the duties of the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirgah in June this year. Its 21 members will determine the participants, procedures and mechanisms for the event, remaining impartial and independent with assistance and facilitation from the UN. Reacting to his appointment to serve on the commission, Borgai said: "I am really fortunate to serve my people at this critical time." Most of the people he knew in the commission were fit for the job, he stressed. Ismail Qasimyar, a prominent Afghan jurist, heads the body. Other notable members include Haji Zahir Khan Jabbarkhail and Asadullah Wulvaji, both Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Mehbooba Huqooqmal, political scientist and human rights lawyer, holds the vice-chair and is one of the commission's three women members. The UN selected the members of the commission after extensive consultation. "The Afghan problem does not entirely depend on such commissions, however. The vast majority of Afghans want peace and Loya Jirgah is a vehicle to that end," Chaknowri maintained, adding that with the passage of time political balances would reassert themselves in the country. The emergency Loya Jirgah is to appoint another transitional Afghan administration, which will hold free elections and frame a new constitution leading to permanent government institutions and democracy over a period of two years. Expressing his optimism over the development, Chaknowri said: "Whatever the world is doing in Afghanistan is for itself, but Afghans would share in the benefits that peace is bound to bring." Sharing this view, Borgai said he believed that the international community had realised the dangers of leaving Afghanistan alone. "The world has recognised that the fire burning in Afghanistan needs to be put out," he said, describing it as an international commitment which would bear fruit.