President Ghani’s Special Envoy Umer Daudzai addressed a press conference on the Grand Consultative Jirga on Peace and said that this Loya Jirga on peace was biggest and most representative of Afghan people.
Daudzai said the Jirga committees started their work on Tuesday and that 13 out of 50 committees of the Peace Jirga are led by women. Also deputies and secretaries of Loya Jirga have bene elected.
Daudzai explained that Afzal Hadid, Mohamad Arif Noorzai, Habiba Sarabi, Kamal Safai and Najia Akhundzada have been elected as deputy heads of the Peace.
It was also assured that reporters will be given more access for coverage of the Jirga.
Daudzai also hinted that there is a possibility of extension of the Jirga if the committees delay their reporting to the administrative board. It was informed that total cost of Loya Jirga is estimated 5 million dollars.
“We had informal consultations with participants of Loya Jirga and most of them agreed to appointing Sayyaf as chairman of the assembly”, said Daudzai.
Daudzai also thanked the Taliban if they have intentionally not hindered representatives to travel to Kabul for Loya Jirga.
Speaking about the target of the Loya Jirga, Daudzai said that their expectation is that when Loya Jirga participants go back, the Taliban should listen to them. “We expect them to listen to the recommendations of the biggest and the most representative Loya Jirga of the history of Afghanistan”, expressed Daudzai.
He also said that he tried to convince CE Abdullah to participate in Loya Jirga, but the latter refused to do so.
