News
Friday, October 28, 2011
Pakistan out of loop on Afghan peace process* ISPR DG Major General Athar Abbas says role of all stakeholders should be determined first
* Islamabad cannot guarantee success of the peace process
* Terms report on ISI-Taliban links as highly biased and one-sided
LAHORE: Pakistan has not been taken into confidence on the initiation of the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Major-General Athar Abbas, the director general of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), has said.
In an interview with BBC in Rawalpindi, Abbas said that Pakistan had neither been taken into confidence nor the Pakistani government had been informed about the objectives of the reconciliation process.
Pakistan can only help in the Afghan reconciliation process when it is taken into confidence, he said.
“We have not been informed and not been taken into confidence on a possible roadmap or a practicable shape of the reconciliation process so far,” he said.
The army spokesman said that “we have not been informed about who is taking part in the reconciliation process and what are its objectives”.
The Afghanistan issue was heading towards a settlement and there was a need to determine the role of every stakeholder in the conflict and how the reconciliation process would be pushed forward and what would be role of Pakistan in this situation, he said, adding that only in that case, Pakistan would be able to decide whether it could persuade one group or the other to take part in the conciliation process. “We cannot guarantee the success of the reconciliation process because none of the groups is in our pocket,” he said.
The director general termed a BBC report, alleging that the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) supplied and protected the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda highly biased and one-sided.
“We consider that report highly biased, it is one-sided, it doesn’t have the version of the side which is badly hit or affected by this report,” Major General Athar Abbas said. “So therefore, other than that, it is factually incorrect,” he said.
He said that the head of ISI had already said “not a single bullet or financial support” had been given to groups named in the BBC report. Abbas said that about 300 ISI officials have been killed in Pakistani Taliban’s attacks and it was a proof that the ISI did not support militants.
He said that the US had been told that the accusation against Pakistan would only benefit terrorists. daily times monitor
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk