Kabul to be pressed to eliminate Taliban bases, assure Afghan MPs
7
ISLAMABAD: The leader of a visiting Afghan parliamentary delegation said on Monday that Afghan parliament would push Kabul to honour its commitments to Islamabad on elimination of sanctuaries of Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan parliament will follow up with (Ashraf Ghani) government on its pledges made to Pakistan on the issue of terror sanctuaries so that required measures are taken,” said Senator Baz Mohammad Zurmati, leader of the Afghan parliamentary delegation.
Mr Zurmati was speaking at a reception hosted in honour of the 16-member Afghan delegation by the Senate Defence Committee at the Parliament House. The delegation is visiting Pakistan for a two-day Pak-Afghan Parliamentary Security Dialogue that will commence on Tuesday.
Presence of TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) sanctuaries in Afghanistan has remained a sore point in the bilateral relationship. Things, however, changed with the installation of Ashraf Ghani government, which promised to act against the TTP’s hideouts. The Afghan army after Peshawar school bloodbath started a major operation in Kunar province, where TTP has been maintaining safe havens since 2009.
Political support in Afghanistan for action against TTP’s sanctuaries on Afghan soil would be seen as a welcome change in Islamabad.
In a message directed to both Islamabad and Kabul, Mr Zurmati said terrorist sanctuaries should not be tolerated.
He urged both governments to act against terrorism with “full honesty”.
“Concrete measures need to be taken to save the region from negative influences (terrorism),” he added.
Chairman Senate Defence Committee Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said there was a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s approach towards Afghanistan, bidding goodbye to notions of strategic depth as well as good and bad Taliban.
The paradigm shift, he added, included “no repeat of past mistakes”.
Senator Sayed said “the policy is clear; we are partners, neighbours and friends for building a better tomorrow for the people of two countries”.
Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2014
