Peace in Afghanistan needed for ending violence, Pakistan tells UN

Published September 19, 2015
Mutual respect for each other’s interests, sensitivities must be the bedrock of the future Pak-Afghan relations: Lodhi.—APP/File
Mutual respect for each other’s interests, sensitivities must be the bedrock of the future Pak-Afghan relations: Lodhi.—APP/File

UNITED NATIONS: “Peace in Afghanistan, and cooperation with Kabul, will enable us to fully defeat our common threat from violent groups,” Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.

It would pave the way for the voluntary return of millions of Afghan refugees Pakistan still hosts – the most protracted presence of refugees in any single country in recent history, she told a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.

“It will open the way for the ambitious plans for regional development and integration we have jointly worked on,” she said.

Also read: Pak-Afghan relations: Hanging by a thread

She concluded by saying that mutual respect for each other’s national interests and sensitivities must be the bedrock of the future Pak-Afghan relationship.

Ms Lodhi said that while external parties could play a role in facilitating Afghan reconciliation they “cannot impose” a solution. Reconciliation and dialogue, she said, had to be between the Afghans themselves and “owned and conducted by Afghans”.

She recalled that it was at the request of President Ashraf Ghani that Pakistan undertook to facilitate a dialogue between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban.

“Our sole aim was to establish direct contact between them and the Unity Government.”

Condemning all terrorist violence in Afghanistan, she told the 15-member council that continued conflict in Afghanistan was not in Pakistan’s national interest.

Warning that those “working overtime to sabotage and poison Pakistan-Afghan relations were no friends of Afghanistan”, she said both Afghanistan and Pakistan needed to be clear who their common enemies were.

Ms Lodhi said that Pakistan’s efforts to encourage the Afghan Taliban leaders to revive the dialogue with Kabul should not be misconstrued as any form of endorsement for their revived violence, following the scuttling of the intra-Afghan talks in July.

She said that in Afghanistan, as elsewhere, there were two possible paths to ending war and violence: a military victory over the insurgents, or a negotiated peace.

She pointed to the general consensus within the international community that peace could be best restored through a negotiated solution with the Afghan insurgency.

Pakistan, Ms Lodhi assured, stood ready to assist the Afghan reconciliation process and had refrained from responding to allegations from certain Afghan quarters.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play

Opinion

Editorial

The Peca problem
Updated 15 Feb, 2025

The Peca problem

The fight for fundamental freedoms is not the media’s alone, but one that concerns every citizen.
Solar panels scam
15 Feb, 2025

Solar panels scam

THE scam involving over-invoicing to the tune of more than Rs69bn in the import of solar panels raises many ...
Miners in danger
15 Feb, 2025

Miners in danger

YESTERDAY’S devastating terrorist attack in Harnai, which killed at least 11 coal miners and injured seven others,...
Dangerous times
Updated 14 Feb, 2025

Dangerous times

Pakistan accounted for six journalist killings in 2024, of which three were deliberately murdered, according to the CPJ.
Difficult target
14 Feb, 2025

Difficult target

A ONE-two punch delivered by an unforeseen, sharp dip in inflation and an extremely slim base of taxpayers is...
Amazing show
14 Feb, 2025

Amazing show

PAKISTAN’S ability to turn it up at the flick of a switch remains uninhibited. The latest show came in...