Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani. — File photo

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani said Pakistan and the United States had a shared interest in a stable Afghanistan but the major challenge for both countries was to find common ground by taking into account political realities within Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.

He was delivering a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Pakistan, the ambassador said, viewed the process of reconciliation in Afghanistan as a significant way to move forward.

“Afghanistan has its own history and its future could best be led and shaped by the people of Afghanistan,” he noted.

Mr Haqqani said Pakistan believed America would benefit more by supporting the reconciliatory approach within Afghan society including the religiously conservative elements.

Commenting on the current state of Pakistan-US relations, he said there were problems but they were not at a point where abandonment would be seen as the final answer by either side.

Pakistan's democratic government, he said, was committed to working towards the elimination of terrorism at a time and pace that worked within its social and political order. He said Pakistan could not undertake military operations that could have a blowback for the country without achieving the ultimate objective of defeating terror.

Mr Haqqani hoped that Pakistan and the United States would be able to have a joint strategy for achieving the objective of creating a stable Afghanistan in a way that Pakistan’s concerns were also accommodated.

The ambassador, speaking at a time of serious strains in the US-Pakistan ties, termed the 'handling of two parallel narratives' as the biggest challenge to the bilateral relationship.

The two countries, he said, need to come out of the current “event-dictated” mode of relations.

On Pakistan's internal situation, he said only a continuation of the democratic process could evolve a vibrant system which was able to meet both internal and external challenges.

Democracy would enable the Pakistani nation to adopt the 21st century outlook, he remarked.