Afghans agree on Ulema panel

AFGHANISTAN, April 29: The on-going talks between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance forces have yielded results as both the sides reached an agreement over the setting up of an Ulema Commission for establishing peace and also setting up a broad based government in Afghanistan. The Steering Committee chairman Ibrahim Saleh Bakar, OIC Assistant Secretary General and head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, James N’Gobi announced the three-point agreement on Wednesday evening.

The two sides arrived to a decision on their sixth session. Under the proposed agreement, each delegation will submit a list of Ulema (religious scholars) for the proposed Ulema Commission. No side will have the right to veto any name or names of the list and the teams will accept each others’ names without any objection. The third point on which the two sides agreed upon was that all deliberations and decisions of the Ulema Commission would be in accordance with the Islamic Sharia (law).

The leaders of the two sides expressedsatisfaction over the agreement and said it is a breakthrough in their talks, and hoped they would succeed in bringing normalcy back into their country.

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The Steering Committee again went into consultations on Wednesday evening to discuss other items on the agenda which include discussions on reaching a ceasefire agreement, an exchange of prisoners and lifting of blockade in smooth supply of aid to the Afghan people.

A Taliban spokesman, also an Afghanistan ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, said, Taliban has made a “major sacrifice” by putting aside their objections regarding the list of the Ulema provided by the Northern Alliance. He said the Taliban had given a “lot of concessions” to the Opposition and hoped that things would now move in the right path.