Balloting for haj pilgrims starts in Nangarhar

JALALABAD (PAN): The Haj and Islamic Affairs department in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday launched a ballot process to select intending pilgrims who would be sent to Saudi Arabia over the next three years.

The department head, Mualvi Abdul Aziz Khairkhwa told Pajhwok Afghan News the ballot process was started from the Behsud district, where 330 people were selected against the district’s quota of 110 pilgrims.

The selected pilgrims would be sent to Saudi Arabia on their turn this year and over next two years, he said.

He said if a person withdrew the deposited money from bank, he or she would automatically drop out of the scheme. “Those who can wait for next two years, they should deposit $1,000 in the bank as guarantee,” he said.

Meanwhile, an office of the commission on tribal disputes was inaugurated in Jalalabad, the provincial capital.

Presidential adviser on tribal affairs Asadullah Wafa, governor Gul Agha Sherzai, provincial officials, tribal elders, civil society leaders attended the inauguration ceremony.

Sherzai said Wafa spent four days in the province discussing the issue of appointing office bearers with all the stakeholders and finally 23 people were selected.

He said the commission in cooperation with government departments and tribes would try to resolve disputes through negotiations. He praised tribal jirgas for resolving inter-tribal disputes across the province.

Wafa, who also heads the President Complaint Office, said the main commission headed by parliamentarian Sibghatullah Mujaddadi had been created in Kabul.

He said members of the commission were playing their role in resolving disputes among tribes without any government incentives.

He said all disputes in Afghanistan were being resolved through jirgas, which had constitutional cover.

To a question, he said such commissions were not in contrast to judicial organs, insisting if every issue could have been addressed with the help of laws, dozens of people would have been saved from death when two sub tribes of the Shinwari clan clashed for years over a land dispute.

Wafa said he along with his delegation visited the disputed land a day earlier and met elders of the two warring tribes – Seapai and Ali Sher.

He said ownership claim of the two tribes would be investigated until the end of Ramazan.

Wafa also dismissed the impression that the commission served as a parallel institute to some government departments and said the United Nations was also a kind of commission and jirga.

However, Nangarhar University teacher Mangal Sherzad said such commissions had been in contrast to government departments over the past decade.

Ma/vp

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