Musharraf to address tribal assembly in Afghanistan

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to address a gathering of tribal leaders in Kabul Saturday over how to contain a growing Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Musharraf’s last minute move came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai called him late on Friday and extended an invitation to join the concluding session of the joint peace jirga, or tribal assembly, being attended by 650 delegates from both countries. The gathering of elders, clerics and politician is scheduled to issue its closing statement on Sunday.

Musharraf startled the stakeholders by bailing out of the first meeting on Thursday, triggering a prompt response from the US. The foreign ministry in Islamabad confirmed that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had called Musharraf to discuss the jirga — a centuries old mechanism for resolving disputes .

Islamabad and Kabul have been caught in a fierce war of words over the surge in activities of Taliban and Al Qaeda elements, which have launched cross-border attacks from remote tribal regions along Pakistan’s border.

While both are US allies in the war against terrorism, the governments of the two South Asian countries have constantly charged each other with failing to cooperate in one another’s counter-terrorism efforts.

Karzai even accused Pakistan of covertly supporting the Taliban to enslave Afghanistan.