PESHAWAR, Oct 30: Pakistan and Iran have been asked to close the offices of some Afghan organisations on their territories which were allegedly aimed at destabilising the Karzai-led government in Kabul.

This was said by a member of the Loya Jirga, Babrek Shinwari, at the concluding session of the two-day seminar on ‘Current Regional Situation and Peace’, organised by the Afghanistan-Pakistan Peoples Friendship Association, on Wednesday.

He said that Islamabad and Tehran should halt the activities of such elements which were working against Karzai government.

The seminar was attended by the Afghan and Pakistani academicians, politicians and the representatives of human rights groups and NGOs.

Mr Shinwari said that political and economic stability could not be restored in Afghanistan unless a strong government was established in Kabul.

He said that warlords still held influence in Afghanistan who had established parallel governments in many provinces. Even some provincial governments had set up their own foreign offices, he added.

He said that in Tokyo conference the donor countries had promised to provide $5 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the transition government had so far received only Rs 1.8 billion. The NGOs sector had received Rs 750 million while the ministry of finance had got only Rs280 million to prepare the annual budget for the country, out of the total released amount.

The local warlords, he said, had also received a major chunk of the amount.

Former Afghan minister Rashid Waziri proposed to disarm warlords to restore lasting peace in Afghanistan and asked the international peacekeepers to accomplish this task.

He said that the transitional government was still fragile and president Hamid Karzai had failed to get full control of the country.

There was no state in Afghanistan and warlords had formed their own governments in the provinces, he said.

Dr Jamal, an economist, said that Afghanistan needed sustainable revenue and resource generation system. At present, he said, Kabul was dependent on foreign donations and the central government was paying salaries to some 220,000 employees from foreign resources, received in form of donations.

The representative of the Commission for Human Rights and Environment of Afghanistan, Ms Fakheria Assad, said that after the down fall of the Taliban government the state of human rights had improved in the country.

She said that women were enjoying freedom in the country and they could go to schools and offices which she termed major achievement in a very short period.

She said that the checkpoints on the Torkham-Kabul Highway had been removed which were established by the local warlords.

Later, the seminar, through a joint resolution, called upon the international community to assist the Afghan government to establish a central justice system in the country to provide prompt justice to the people.

The association urged Islamabad and Kabul to release prisoners, including the prisoners of war, languishing in various jails of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The association also called for establishing close relations among higher education institutions of the two countries.