Strict enforcement of pact planned: Waziristan issue
By Qudssia Akhlaque
ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday chaired a high-level inter-agency meeting to discuss the state of relations with Afghanistan and ways of removing irritants between the two countries.
The meeting, held at the President’s camp office in Rawalpindi in the afternoon, was kept under wraps and there was no word about it from the presidency, the Foreign Office or the Press Information Department.
Sources told Dawn that Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, NWFP Governor Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and representatives of key security agencies attended the meeting.
Apparently the meeting was convened on the request of the foreign minister after his return from Kabul earlier this month where he had a two-hour-long meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Mr Kasuri gave a detailed account of his visit to Afghanistan and his candid but tense interaction with President Karzai who held Pakistan responsible for the Taliban-led insurgency in his country. Mr Kasuri also proposed specific measures to address the Afghan concerns.
A number of important decisions were taken at the meeting, including imposition of stricter measures for more effective implementation of the government’s controversial North Waziristan deal with the tribal elders, sources privy to the meeting told Dawn.
The dominant view at the meeting was that while strategically the approach adopted in North Waziristan was correct, it required better implementation, the sources said.
As a result of this meeting, the government is likely to soon set up a high-level ‘Peace Commission’ on the lines of the Afghan Jirga Commission headed by Pir Geelani to ensure greater security on the borders and promote peace and stability.
Most likely, the NWFP governor would head the commission.
According to the plan, once the commission is formally put in place, it would coordinate efforts with the Afghan commission to promote peace and stability which could culminate in the proposed grand gatherings of notables on both sides.
The two point-men on the jirga question -- the NWFP governor and Afghanistan’s Pir Geelani, Chairman of the Afghan Jirga Commission -- would keep in touch with each other to work out the modalities including the agenda and composition.
Mr Kasuri also highlighted the positive signals from the Iranian leadership on the gas pipeline project and the assurance that Iran would go ahead with it even if for some reason India opted to stay away of it.
