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KABUL - Afghanistan is to convene a Loya Jirga council in June that will decide whether interim leader Hamid Karzai stays in power but will seek to exclude drug dealers and war criminals.
The centuries-old Loya Jirga announced on Sunday will have 1450 delegates and represents the biggest step towards imposing order on war-battered Afghanistan since Karzai's appointment as interim head of state in mid-December.
"We have done it without fear and without feeling any pressure from anyone," said Ismail Qasimy, chairman of a UN-appointed 21-member commission that has spent weeks organising the Loya Jirga, or grand tribal council of elders.
In contrast with the previous radical Islamic Taleban rulers, only six places were allotted to religious leaders. Women were guaranteed at least 160 places.
"This Loya Jirga is going to be convened from the 10th of June until 16th of this current year. It shall be in Kabul," Qasimy, a former supreme court judge, told a news conference.
Dubbing the council the "Peace and Democracy Loya Jirga", Qasimy said it would elect a head of state, decide the type of government to rule until national elections in about two years and appoint ministers.
But the countdown to the Loya Jirga and the gathering itself is expected to widen the many splits in Afghanistan's society.
In a sign of the difficulty of keeping all sides happy, the final total of 1450 was nearly three times the number Qasimy envisioned when he started his search.
Kabul residents hailed the calling of the Loya Jirga.
"It will at last take us down a new road to peace," said civil servant Mohammad Ismail.
"The whole country at last will have a say in the running of our affairs."
Malya, a mother of four, applauded the women's seats.
"The voices of women have been silent for too long in Afghanistan," she said.
In a statement outlining arrangements, the commission said there would be 1051 elected delegates and the other seats would be set aside for groups such as women, business people and overseas Afghans.
There were to be six "religious personalities" and 100 delegates representing refugees mainly in Pakistan and Iran.
All top members of Karzai's administration and the 21 members of the commission would be among the delegates.
To qualify for the Loya Jirga, potential candidates have to be meet requirements including:
-- having no link with terror organisations
-- not having been involved in spreading or smuggling narcotics, abuse of human rights, war crimes, looting of public property and smuggling of cultural and archaeological heritage.
-- in the eyes of the people, not having been involved indirectly or directly in the killing of innocent people.
But it was unclear how it would be judged whether candidates had been involved in such activities.
Qasimy dismissed suggestions some Karzai officials should be excluded because of war crimes and drug smuggling.
"They (Karzai administration members) are heroes of our liberation and have an automatic right to attend," Qasimy said.
The administration of Karzai, a Pashtun, is dominated by Tajiks even though Afghanistan is a Pashtun majority country.
Qasimy said there would be no blanket ban on former members of the Taleban, vanquished by US-led forces in December.
"If they fulfil the requirements, they can come," he said.
Qasimy confirmed former King Zahir Shah, who has lived in exile in Rome since 1973, would open the inaugural session of the Loya Jirga in Kabul but retire once a chairman was elected.
Asked who would open the Loya Jirga if the king, whose return has been postponed several times, did not turn up, Qasimy said the Loya Jirga itself would name his replacement.
Loya Jirgas have been held to reach important decisions about once every 20 years in the past three centuries. The last was in 1987 when there was a Soviet-backed government.
They are colourful, rowdy affairs with delegates attending from the most far-flung tribal areas as well as intellectuals, warlords, business people, politicians and religious leaders.
The election of delegates will be supervised by the United Nations and include international monitors.
Grassroots selections start on April 13 and the final choice of delegates must be made by June 6.
- REUTERS
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