ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday discussed steps to raise bilateral relations to ‘strategic level’ through increased security and diplomatic and economic cooperation.
The two leaders had a 45-minute of one-to-one meeting before their foreign and interior ministers and ambassadors joined them.
The two sides agreed to increase contacts between their foreign ministries and consult each other on major issues. The issue of arms and production of drugs in Afghanistan also came under discussion.
Both the leaders stressed the need for increasing security cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing to control cross-border movement of undesirable elements.
Prime Minister Aziz reiterated that Pakistan desired a peaceful and stable Afghanistan as it was in the interest of the Afghan people as well as Pakistan. He said Islamabad would take all measures to achieve this objective.
The two sides discussed the possibility of Pakistani entrepreneurs setting up a textile factory in Afghanistan if Kabul had a market access and allowed an industrial zone there.
Mr Karzai said his country would continue to seek technical and material support from Pakistan.
The reconstruction activities in Afghanistan also came under discussion. They also exchanged views on Pakistan-India relations, Pakistan-China ties and Iran’s nuclear programme crisis.
MEDIA TALK: Meanwhile, talking to a panel of journalists, the Afghan leader promised not to allow any country interfere Kabul’s relations with Islamabad.
“We will not allow any country, any government with whom Afghanistan has relations to interfere in our relations with Pakistan, or to use our soil against Pakistan.
“We know the consequences for that for Afghanistan...We will not allow that primarily for the Afghan interests and for the interest of Pakistan,” he said.
He was responding to a question about Wednesday’s killing of three Chinese engineers in Balochistan and possibility of its links with Afghan warlords and the Indian consulate in Afghanistan.
President Karzai said his government was keeping watch on such elements. He, however, added that there were no more warlords in Afghanistan. He said the writ of his government was being established gradually. He said Al Qaeda militants no longer had any base in the country.
On Pakistan’s offer of border fencing, Mr Karzai said he would not support it and added that it would separate people in the two countries.
“We can fight terrorism more effectively by going to its sources, by going where they get trained, finding their training camps, removing them, stopping the equipment that reach them, and if there is such a thing in Afghanistan or Pakistan we should do it,” he emphasised.
Referring to reports about presence of high-value targets in the region, he said in Afghanistan there was a need to intensify the exchange of information.
He said his government had launched a peace programme, headed by former president Mujaddadi, and added that all those Taliban who are not part of Al Qaeda or any other terrorist body had been asked to return and find jobs in the government or other institutions.
He cited the example of Taliban leader Maulvi Arsala Rehmani, who returned and was welcomed.
Mr Karzai made it clear that the offer was definitely not for former Taliban leader Mullah Omer. “He (Mullah Omer) has to answer to the Afghan people, to the Muslims for the crimes against Islam, to stop the children of Islamic Ummah from going to schools, preventing them from gaining education, beating Muslim women on streets and stopping Muslims from prospering.”
He said Mullah Omer was a criminal and was committing un-Islamic acts.
He hoped that economic stability and prosperity would help in eradication of drug trade.
He said three million Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion and settled there and added that 2.7 million refugees had returned though they still moved across the border frequently.
DEFENCE COLLEGE: Later, speaking at the National Defence College, President Karzai said that the real ‘strategic depth concept’ was the one where both the countries would build strong economic, trade and bilateral relations which could also be of a great help to neighbouring countries.
He proposed that on the pattern of European Union there should no passports for travelling between Afghanistan and Pakistan which, he added, would allow increased trade.—Agencies
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