KOHAT, April 17: A tribal jirga has decided to meet Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani to lodge a complaint against what it says unusual delay in payment of compensation for businessmen who died or were injured in the Feb 9 suicide bomb attack in Hangu.

The decision to meet Mr Durrani was taken by the 12-member grand peace jirga from Orakzai Agency on Sunday evening after its failure to broker a peace accord, officials told Dawn.

The jirga has put off its work till April 28 when it will discuss the result of its talks with the chief minister for early payment of compensation.

The jirga at its meeting regretted that despite passage of two and a half months the chief minister and the governor had not visited Hangu to sympathise with the affectees of the blast which claimed 47 lives and damaged property worth Rs1.49 billion.

Maulana Jawad Ahmed Jawadi, district Khateeb of Hangu, told Dawn, that the sectarian issue in the country was not being resolved due to the government’s double standards and non-serious attitude.

He pointed out that the president and the prime minister had rushed to Karachi and Sindh’s governor and chief minister personally sympathised with the families of the victims of the Eid-i-Milad blast.

But in the case of Hangu even the interior minister did not issue a statement about efforts needed to trace and punish the culprits.

He said that if the NWFP chief minister and governor visited Hangu now people could feel that the government cared for all citizens and wanted to share their grief and sorrow.

They said that the gigantic task ahead for the jirga and the administration was to arrange compensation for the affected people and the families of the dead and injured so that the bazaar, which had been closed for more than two months, could be reopen.

About delay in payment of compensation, it said, would spoil the efforts made by the jirga to maintain the temporary ceasefire amidt the looming threat of fresh sectarian violence.

The grand jirga was constituted to bring both communities to the negotiating table to resolve the issue of payment of compensation to the businessmen whose 625 shops were burnt by the angry mob after the suicide bomb blast, fix responsibility, collect fine and finalise agreement for a lasting peace in the area.

The jirga which held seven meetings in one month reached the conclusion that unless the business community and the victims of the blast were compensated by the government peace talks would not move forward.

The jirga, headed by Akhunzada Mohammad Aslam Farooqui (chief of Taliban Tehrik of Orakzai Agency), termed the delay in the payment of compensation of Rs360 million a major impediment to lasting peace.

The jirga unanimously decided to request the chief minister to release the necessary funds without delay so that the bazaar could be reopen and life return to normalcy.

Malik Jamal Hassan is the head of six-member team of Shia community which is part of the jirga.