October 31, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba'an 13, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: The UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, met Gen Rahim Verdak in Islamabad on Tuesday, a UN spokesperson said at a news conference.

Gen Verdak is the military aide to former king Zahir Shah.

The UN Information Centre director, Eric Falt, said Mr Brahimi had met Afghans belonging to different shades of opinion during the day, besides having a working lunch with Gen Verdak. The secretary-general’s special envoy also met a number of individual Afghans and sought their opinion about the future of Afghanistan, the spokesperson said.

Earlier on Monday, a UN spokesperson had said although the Taliban ambassador, Mulla Zaeef, had requested a meeting with Mr Brahimi on Tuesday, no meeting was scheduled between the two.

On the same day, Ambassador Zaeef had, at a news conference, said he expected to meet Mr Brahimi on Tuesday.

Till the filing of the report, no meeting had taken place between the Taliban, who claim to control 90 per cent of the territory in Afghanistan, and Mr Brahimi, who is making efforts for forming a broadbased government in Afghanistan.

When contacted, the Afghan embassy officials said no meeting had been scheduled between Mr Brahimi and Ambassador Zaeef on Wednesday.

Mr Falt said that earlier during the day President Pervez Musharraf and Mr Brahimi had agreed on a broad range of to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of Afghanistan in any post-Taliban dispensation.

He said President Musharraf and Mr Brahimi had held detailed deliberations on the future of Afghanistan. Francesc Venderal, deputy of Mr Brahimi, also attended the one-hour meeting with President Musharraf.

Mr Falt said the president and Mr Brahimi had agreed on the UN’s central role in resolving the political and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

“President Musharraf and Mr Brahimi expressed unanimity of views about the establishment of a broad-based consensus government in Afghanistan, with representation of all groups”, he said. “Both the parties expressed unanimity of views that any political dispensation should be home-grown and fully owned by the people of Afghanistan”.

The spokesperson said Mr Brahimi also extended UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan’s “greetings” to President Musharraf and told him that the secretary-general was looking forward to his visit to the UN next month.

He said Mr Brahimi also had a working lunch with Northern Alliance leader Gen Verdak. Mr Brahimi also met Afghans representing various shades of opinion and told them that a team work was needed to restore peace to Afghanistan.