ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Pakistan expected “very positive” and “very good” relations with new Afghanistan authority, the foreign office spokesman said here on Thursday and went on to disclose that Islamabad would revive its diplomatic relations with Kabul “as soon as the new authority is installed here on Dec 22.”

Spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan told a press briefing that Islamabad had withdrawn its diplomatic personnel from Kabul following the Sept 11 carnage in the US. Now with the establishment of new Kabul authority under Hamid Karzai, Islamabad would revive its diplomatic presence in Kabul on being assured of the security of its personnel.

Asked whether the policy towards Afghanistan was being reviewed, the spokesman replied: “Very much so”. He said such review was carried out as a matter of course by the foreign ministry in respect of its foreign relations with all other countries as well. About Pakistan’s participation in the Dec 22 ceremony in Kabul, he said it depended what arrangements the new Afghan authority had made.

Strict vigil is being maintained along Pakistan’s western border to stem the stream of Afghan refugees attempting to cross over into this country. As a matter of policy, Pakistan is permitting only those refugees who hold valid travel documents, he said, adding those found to have come here without travel papers would be arrested and dealt with under the relevant rules.

Major General Rashid Qureshi, Director-General ISPR, also present at the briefing, once again refuted claims made in different press reports that the two Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission men, currently under detention, were involved in the production of nuclear /chemical or biological weapons.

He said the two scientists had disclosed nothing at all about their involvement in these weapons manufacture and claimed that they were held because they failed to obtain permission of the Pakistani authorities to travel abroad and operate their ventures in contravention of rules. They would be charged and sentenced if the evidence against them was established, he added.

General Qureshi said only airborne and electronic surveillance, aided by ground patrolling, was being carried out against infringement along Pakistan-Afghanistan border and no air force jet bombers or fighters were involved in the operation.—H.A