June 26, 2015
News
Govt ready to broker talks between Afghan govt and Taliban: Aziz
By Ijaz KakakhelISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz on Thursday said the government is ready to facilitate dialogue between Afghan government and Taliban.
The peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban are expected soon. The advisor expressed these views while addressing a maiden meeting of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Senator Nuzhat Sadiq chaired the meeting.
Aziz said that the coming weeks will be extremely significant for peace talks, however; efforts are being made to conduct dialogue in Qatar or Istanbul. The adviser said the talks must have some positive impact on the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan. He said not only the Taliban, but many foreign fighters are still fighting in Afghanistan.
Aziz said the Afghan Taliban must respect the mandate given by the Afghan to their representatives in elections last year. He confirmed that negotiations are going on with the Afghan authorities regarding the search and extradition of top terrorist of the banned terrorist outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Mullah Fazlullah.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told the committee that there are no footprints of IS and that there is no direct threat to Pakistan from IS, however, security agencies must be cognizant of the situation and take precautionary measures. He confirmed the peace agreement between Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Afghanistan’s domestic intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS) but said the agreement has yet to be ratified and confirmed from the Afghan government.
The agreement for talks comes only days after an attack on Afghanistan’s parliament, which was claimed by the Afghan Taliban. He said Pakistan has very clear policy over Afghanistan of non-violence and restoration of peace there is utmost priority of both the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments. Peace in Afghanistan is essential for peace in Pakistan, the foreign secretary maintained.
Farhatullah Babar expressed concern that Pak-Afghan relations, which appeared to be improving after the change of governments in the two countries were taking a steep plunge.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had publicly condemned and warned Taliban against launching of spring offensive and President Ashraf Ghani going out of the way and bending over backwards to mend fences with Pakistan had raised hopes.
Ghani made far reaching overtures including his unprecedented visit to the GHQ to meet army chief, sending Afghan cadets for training in military academy Kakul, sending the Afghan Army chief for parade at PMA Kakul and establishing special economic zones for Pakistani entrepreneurs in Jalalabad.
He said that lately Ghani appeared to be frustrated and losing hope with Pakistan. It is evident from his recent pronouncements and leak of his letter addressed to the civilian and military leadership of Pakistan outlining his deep concerns. The Taliban also had disowned the reconciliation talks he said. “This could be either due to our inability or unwillingness to address the concerns of Ghani about the Taliban militants or it might indicate that these Taliban had outgrown their mentors and were no longer in our control.” He stressed the need for addressing the concerns of Afghan president.
On strategic stability and non-proliferation, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that although Pakistan had taken a number of steps to bolster its credentials as a responsible nuclear state in the realms of nuclear safety, nuclear security and tightening nuclear export regime however, we have yet to come out clean on past proliferation activities to provide convincing evidence that the proliferation network had been totally dismantled and the people behind it decommissioned.
He said that former president Pervez Musharraf in his book admitted that tonnes of nuclear material, including huge centrifuge machines were transported to Libya and Iran. Questions had been raised whether the huge proliferation network could have been operated by one individual acting alone. Accusations of proliferation have cost us dearly. Failure in addressing them firmly and credibly has undermined our efforts to seek civilian nuclear deal like that of US-India deal so necessary for nuclear stability, he said.
The committee expressed reservations over the involvement of Indian consulates in Afghanistan to destabilise Pakistan. The foreign secretary also briefed the committee about talks with India and said that no progress has yet been made in this regard as India is ruling out the resumption of talks.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk