ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Pakistan hopes that the Afghan government would see merit in the North Waziristan peace deal and pursue a similar strategy to address the volatile situation in Afghanistan.
This was stated by Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam at a weekly news briefing here on Monday. She was replying to a question whether Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri would suggest replication of the North Waziristan peace deal in Afghanistan during his visit to Kabul this week.
While noting that it was not for the foreign minister to suggest what Afghanistan ought to do, Ms Aslam said Pakistan hoped that something along similar lines would be developed and implemented in Afghanistan.In this context she said the foreign minister would share the strategy that Pakistan had followed in the tribal areas. “He would tell them how we went about it and why we believe it was a successful strategy,” she added.
The spokesperson said that during his three-day visit to Afghanistan starting Thursday, Mr Kasuri would hold wide-ranging talks with the Afghan leadership, including follow-up discussions on meeting between the two presidents at the iftar-dinner hosted by President Bush in September, particularly on the proposal of holding jirgas.
“The focus would be on how to activate this traditional institution (jirga) to bring down violence and promote peace,” she said.
When asked if Mr Kasuri would also address the skepticism in Afghan quarters that the meeting of the tribal elders might be used by Pakistan as a means of legitimising Taliban’s role in the future, the spokesperson said: “He is not going there to specifically dispel their suspicions. It (jirga) was President Karzai’s idea and I am sure he had thought it through.”
Emphasising that his visit was part of regular contacts between the two countries she said: “He would discuss bilateral relations and what we need to do. Basically he will discuss how to bring about peace and calm in the bordering areas of the two countries.”
She underscored: “We would like to see peace in Afghanistan and it is our conviction that for that we require a comprehensive strategy which must have political reconciliation, massive economic reconstruction apart from the military action that is already being taken.”
Ms Aslam also mentioned president’s proposal of a Marshall Plan-like reconstruction programme for Afghanistan, particularly for south and southeast of the country.
She was somewhat evasive on the question of whether Pakistan was satisfied with the outcome of the recently concluded Nato Summit on Afghanistan.
Noting that Pakistan had articulated on a number of occasions what it expected of Nato in Afghanistan, she said: “What we expect them to achieve in Afghanistan and how Nato wants to go about it is for Nato itself to decide but we have certainly emphasised the need for a comprehensive strategy in Afghanistan.”
DE-MINING MISSION: To a query, she said Pakistan had made the offer to send a contingent for de-mining in response to a request received from the Lebanese prime minister and in that context it was a bilateral arrangement. However, she explained given that the UN had started de-mining operations and some deployments had already been made in the area divided into four zones, Pakistan approached the UN.
“We got in touch with the UN and informed them of our readiness to provide our contingent and we were informed that in the process of rotation they would let us know when our troops are required,” the spokesperson told a questioner.
When asked if that meant the deployment of Pakistani contingent would be under the UN umbrella, her response was: “It will be in coordination with the UN.”
