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| 12 January 2004 | Monday | 19 Ziqa'ad 1424 |
Border patrol accord with Kabul likely
ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Pakistan and Afghanistan are likely to sign agreements regarding exchange of prisoners, joint patrolling of borders and training of security forces of the war-torn country, interior minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn on Sunday.
The pact would be signed during Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali's visit to Afghanistan on Monday. He will be accompanied by finance minister Shaukat Aziz and the interior minister.
"Following the PM's visit to Afghanistan, Pakistani experts would be sent to Afghanistan to impart training to its security forces," he added. "About 2,500-kilometre-long Pakistan-Afghanistan border required skilled security force to control human smuggling, drug trafficking and gun running," he maintained.
The interior minister said about 1,000 Pakistanis were in different jails of Afghanistan and hundreds of Afghans were also imprisoned in Pakistan.
"About 150 Afghan nationals are in jail for violating immigration rules and 200 others for minor crimes," he added. He said Afghan President Hamid Karzai would be asked for repatriation of prisoners of the two countries on a reciprocal basis.
The two countries, he said, will also make efforts to control drug and human trafficking. In this connection, the staff of the law enforcement agencies of the two countries will carry out joint patrols in the border areas, he added.
He said the country was hosting about three million Afghan refugees. They could not be sent back to their country unless the situation there became normal. Mr Hayat said mass-scale cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan had become a matter of concern for Pakistan.
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