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Post-Taliban Conference Opens In Peshawar
PESHAWAR, Oct 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A conference on the future of a post-Taliban Afghanistan, attended by some 1,000 delegates, including Islamic scholars, tribal chiefs and Afghan exiles, opened in Peshawar Wednesday, news agencies reported.
The two-day "Conference for Peace and National Unity of Afghanistan" began at 10 am (0500 GMT), an hour behind schedule, at the Nishtar Hall in the northwestern Pakistan town near the border with Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The conference was organized by a coalition of 19 exile groups working for a peaceful Afghanistan.
The coalition is dominated by the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan (NIFA) of Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani. An Islamic spiritual leader and supporter of Afghanistan's exiled former king, Gailani hails from the same ethnic Pashtun majority as the Taliban in power in Kabul.
In his opening speech, Gailani said his homeland had been "plunged into the most critical period of its history.
"Every effort must be made to bring about an end to military operations and the start of reconstruction of the country as soon as possible," he said.
He called for the formation of a transitional government headed by former Afghan monarch Mohammed Zahir Shah, who lives in exile in Rome.
The 87-year-old former king has become the focus of international efforts to find an alternative government, representing all of Afghanistan's disparate ethnic groups, that could take over power in Afghanistan should the Taliban collapse.
According to BBC's online service, delegates are to discuss the formation of a broad-based multi-ethnic government and the composition of a 120-man interim council to oversee the transition of power and avoid a power vacuum.
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, Gailani said moderate Taliban, ready to work with all Afghans to rebuild the country, would be welcome in a post-Taliban government, AFP reported.
"Taliban moderates could play a continued role in politics if the regime was replaced with a more broad-based government," he added.
"There are elements in Afghanistan who have their importance, whose role is important and cannot be ignored, irrespective of what the impression might be outside Afghanistan about their role.
"They are very much a part of this society, their existence cannot be challenged," he said of Taliban which has ruled most of the country since it seized Kabul in 1996."
The Taliban are being bombed by the U.S. for their refusal to hand over Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who is accused by the U.S. of masterminding the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, which left more than 5,000 people dead.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said "moderate Taliban" should be included in a future broad-based Afghan government and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has also left the door open to their participation.
A delegation from the former king has been invited to the Peshawar conference and NIFA sources said some representatives of the former monarch would attend.
"Practically, you have every segment of society, from the key players to the common man on the street, to sit down together, to put their minds together and to examine where is the problem that we should cut each other's throat," Gailani said.
The participants at the conference are also set to discuss the possible convening of a Loya Jirga, a traditional Afghan assembly of elders, AFP reported.
A Loya Jirga, according to Afghan tradition, is a special meeting of all Afghan religious, tribal and ethnic factions, which is called in times of turmoil to unite the country's fractious clans and ethnic groups.
Afghanistan is made up of a patchwork of fractious tribes that throughout the country's history have fought for control.
It is unclear if any trust exists between leaders of the Northern Alliance, who are mainly Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara peoples from the north of the country, and moderate members of the Pashtun tribe who back the Taliban.
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