A day before, President, General Pervaz Musharraf visit to Kabul, the government and local Taliban commanders signed a peace agreement in Miranshah on September 5, 2006. The peace agreement was inked to end two-year violence in North Waziristan. The Taliban had been following a unilateral ceasefire since June 2006. Shortly before the expiry of the one-month truce, Governor NWFP Lt Gen (retd) Ali Muhammad Orakzai formed a 45-member Grand Jirga (composed of tribal elders) to end the conflict in the region, bordering Afghanistan where more than 80,000 troops have been deployed to check militants allegedly moving across the Durand Line.

The Agreement:
The agreement contains 16 clauses and four sub-clauses but copy of the agreement was not issued to media. Maulvi Nek Zaman MNA from tribal area read out the agreement after which the militants and military officials hugged each other and exchanged greetings.

The Maulvi Nek Zaman announced following clauses;
There shall be no cross-border movement for militant activity in neighboring Afghanistan.
The government guaranteed not to undertake any ground or air operation against the militants.
It bounds the administration to resolve the issues through local customs and traditions.
The army will remove checkpoints in the region and tribal Khasadar force and Levy will take over the check posts.
The agreement envisages that the foreigners living in North Waziristan will have to leave Pakistan but those who cannot leave will be allowed to live peacefully, respecting the law of the land and the agreement.
Both parties (army and militants) will return each other’s weapons, vehicles and communication tools seized during various operations.
Jirga comprising tribal elders, Mujahideen and Utmanzai tribe would ensure that no one attack law-enforcement personnel and state property.
There will be no target killing and no parallel administration in the agency. The writ of the state will prevail in the area
Militants would not enter the settled districts adjacent to the agency
The government would release prisoners held during military action and would not arrest them again.
A 10-member committee — comprising elders, members of political administration and Ulema — has been formed to monitor progress on the agreement and to ensure its implementation.
The government would pay compensation for the loss of life and property of innocent tribesmen during the recent operation.
There will be no ban on display of arms. However, tribesmen will not carry heavy weapons.
Militant commanders Maulana Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Sadiq Noor did not attend the ceremony and their representatives signed the document on their behalf. The militants said that they were assured by the jirga that the government would pay them Rs10 million if it failed to return their weapons and vehicles, seized during various military operations. Before signing the agreement, the government virtually agreed to meet all the demands of the militants. Captured militants were freed, their weapons were returned, all privileges were restored, 12 check posts were abolished and troops stationed were called back.

Is it different from previous agreements?
Governor NWFP Ali Mohammad Aurakzai has welcomed the peace agreement as ‘unprecedented in tribal history’. But a same deal was struck in Shakai on March 27, 2004 between South Waziristan militants and the government. Later similar agreements were made with Baitullah Mehsud and other militant commanders. How much different is the Miramshah agreement from previous one?

The main clauses of the Shakai agreement were:
Government shall evacuate the area immediately after the announcement of the agreement.
Government shall pay compensation for deaths and properties of the tribes destroyed during operation.
Government shall do its best to minimize its interference in tribal areas.
Government shall release all the innocent people arrested during the operation.
The government shall give one-month deadline to foreign elements to voluntarily hand over themselves to the government or announce to start a peaceful social life. The tribal society shall give the guarantee of their peaceful conduct.
The Peshawar Corps Commander shall visit Wana along with FATA secretary and ISI director as a goodwill gesture to local tribes.
The tribesmen shall never conduct any violent activity in Pakistan.
The tribes shall never allow use of their land against any other country.
Both agreements are almost the same. What has the government learnt from Shakai Agreement? The government claims that after Shakai agreement the security situation tremendously improved but the factual situation is a little bit different. Most of the militants, who were freed, had stopped the militant activities and some of them were shifted into the North Waziristan. The security forces had not evacuated the area completely and attacks on their check posts remained a routine matter. Even first suicide attack was made in South Waziristan in July 2006. The foreigners are still living in South Waziristan, and those militants, inked the deal with government especially Baitullah Mehsud, enforced Islamic laws in the area and developed his own Shariah Force for implementation of Islamic laws. The tribal Taliban expanded their network in the settled areas of the adjacent districts as well. This time the government claims that militants have assured they would not set up a parallel administration or interfere in affairs of the settled districts. The desired results of the agreement can be obtained only if both sides stick to the decisions, made at the Miranshah jirga.

Like the previous agreements, the new agreement includes a clause about foreign militants that they would either leave the tribal region or live there peacefully, strictly following law of the land. This is a big concession to the foreign militants otherwise the government always insisted for their registration.

Barely an hour after the peace agreement was signed, a spokesman for the militants insisted that there were no foreign militants in North Waziristan, saying that the government could never produce any evidence about presence of foreign militants in the area. He also denied that militants were crossing into Afghanistan to carry out attacks on Afghan and coalition forces. The foreign militants have nowhere to go. Their countries do not accept them back and if they go back, they will be prosecuted in their respective countries. Recently, Bangladesh and Somalia have refused to accept its citizens, arrested from tribal areas. The most crucial point of the peace agreement, however, is the government's decision to allow foreigners to stay in the area provided they remain peaceful and abide by the law. But for that guarantees will be obtained from local tribal elders. Even though it is a paradigm shift from our earlier policy that focused on expulsion of foreigners, settled in the tribal areas. The government might have been constrained to adopt this course after realizing that the constant use of force proved counter-productive to get rid of militancy.

Jirga parleys were conducted in extreme secrecy with Governor Aurakzai emerging as the focal person and President Musharraf’s point person on the government’s policy on Fata. Apparently Afghanistan didn’t show any reaction on the agreement, possibly because of the Musharraf’s visit to Kabul where he would take his counterpart, Hamid Karzai into confidence. If the agreement is fully implemented, the militants would stop cross-border movements in Afghanistan. However, Afghanistan would be satisfied with the agreement only if Taliban insurgency would reduce in its bordering provinces.

For now the government has been able to achieve peace but future is uncertain. It will indeed be a daunting task to the government to ensure that there is no cross-border movement by local and foreign militants and they do not indulge in activities detrimental to peace and security