Alternative deadline: Kayani doubts Kabul ready for ISAF pullout

Says relations between the US and Pakistan are satisfactory.

SEVILLE/SPAIN:

Pakistan’s army chief said on Friday he doubted neighbouring Afghanistan would be ready for international troops to leave by 2014 as planned.

“Frankly, I have my doubts,” General Ashfaq Kayani told Reuters on the sidelines of a Nato military committee conference in the Spanish city of Seville. Kayani said he thought an alternative deadline might be possible.

“No date can be a final date,” he said. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force is training Afghan security forces and is due to fully withdraw from the war-torn country by 2014. Kayani added that he thought relations between the United States and Pakistan were satisfactory. “Relations are good. They are improving,” he said.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2011.