ISLAMABAD: A day after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar signalled on Thursday that Pakistan could shortly end a more than two-month blockade on Nato supplies entering Afghanistan for the coalition forces.
The border has been shut since Nato air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26 in Mohmand Agency while a parliamentary committee is in the midst of a review of its US alliance.
Responding as to when parliament would pass the review, she said: “I’m going to hopefully ensure and push it very hard that it is no later than within a week... first half of February is probable.”
“I cannot pre-empt what the Parliament is going to decide but I would assume that should not be so much of a problem,” she said when asked if the recommendations would include re-opening the border.
When the route eventually re-opens, it is widely expected to tax Nato convoys carrying supplies shipped to its port in Karachi and trucked through its territory to landlocked Afghanistan.
Afghan peace process
The foreign minister also sought to distance Pakistan from being in any way an independent actor in an effective Afghan peace process after a leaked Nato report based on material from interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, accused Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of still backing the Taliban.
The foreign minister said that Pakistan was willing to do whatever Afghans wanted to end 10 years of war with the Taliban, but insisted the process should not be led by the Americans or any other foreign power.
“We’re willing to do whatever the Afghans want or expect,” Khar said when asked whether Pakistan was ready to nudge the Haqqani network towards negotiations, but stopped short of naming the group or commenting further.
Earlier, Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Michael Steiner in a meeting with Khar also endorsed a Pakistani proposal for a broad-based and genuine reconciliation process in Afghanistan, including talks with the Haqqani network, a foreign ministry official said. The German envoy is a on a visit to Islamabad to help bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table.
“Germany and Pakistan have agreed on the broader contours of the Afghan reconciliation process,” said the official after talks between Khar and Steiner.
Karzai visit
Furthermore, Khar said, Karzai was due in Islamabad in the middle of the month and that she would travel with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Qatar, where the Taliban has set up a liaison office for talks with the Americans.
She said it was “not in anyone’s interest” for Afghanistan to slide back into the chaos of the past, but said Pakistan had “so far” not played any substantial role in the contacts there between the Americans and the Taliban.
Khar was determined to refute perceptions that Islamabad was an obstacle to peace. “It is [up to] Afghanistan to decide and as a friendly neighbour, it is our job and responsibility and will to stand strongly behind that. The only prerequisite that Pakistan has is that it should be an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven, Afghan-backed process which has the ownership of Afghan people.”
Khar also took a swipe at media reports and leaks, saying these do not reflect Pakistan’s “dialogue” with Nato and the United States.
“Pakistan would not want to be seen to be working at cross purposes with the rest of the world, including westerners, Nato, Isaf, US. It will be in our interest to be able to assist them in whatever way we can,” she said. AFP
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2012.
COMMENTS (25)
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Pakistan will do whatever Kabul wants for peace except supporting the Taliban and using Afghanistan as a strategic asset
Pakistan policy of using "strategic depth" has been a dismal failure - it's alienated your allies and ruined Pakistan's international reputation. It's time for Pakistan's civilian govt to quit being a puppet and take control of foreign policy from "the establishment" - controlling policy is the first step in controlling your destiny. PS - how lame is it to use anther's moniker?
Some of these comments that say that Pakistan should not try to influence Afghanistan in any way. Well, the trouble with that is the Indians are in there trying to create an anti-Pakistan regime on the western border, so we have a hostile neighbor on the East as well as the West. Pakistan should do whatever it takes for it's interest to counter Indian influence there. By the way Indians are also in Baulchistan in a big way, from across the border in Afghanistan.
Dear Mr/Ms. Khan,
Thank you for answering very eloquently to Mr. Asif
Best Regards
@Amjad: " ... Afghanistan is used to doing whatever India tells it to do. .... "
Have some respect for the Afghans please !! They are simple people, but they take no masters - you should know better ( first USSR, then USA, Pakistan next ?). They make very loyal friends and we really value and appreciate their friendship. Perhaps it is this relationship that you misinterpret ? Probably what we offer to Afghanistan in exchange for what we get from Afghanistan is a really good deal ?
@Asif:
Sir, if you listen to yourself you will know the difference yourself and that why we find it unacceptable attitude for the Armed forces to meddle in the affairs of an elected government. Every where else they may or may not influence policy making but in our case they just not only dictate the policy but can throw away country's constitution at will. Their actions might seem correct in the eyes of some 'patriots' but in long run they are self inflicted wounds on the country and are creating hurdles toward evolution of healthy society.
Poor afghan refugees and so called puppet governmnet of afghanistan is regularly blamed by blinded pakistanis. If a so called atomic power can't show guts and swallows everything others throw towards it then a country like afghanistan should not be blamed to be puppet. pakistan has to look inward and just admit they have been a destructing force for afghanistan. the refugees in pakistan are generating GDP for pakistan through their business midedness and history of conducting trade. Give us a break: just admit you are inspite of all your assests, army and a-bomb more incompetent and currupt than the regime in kabul, which I agree is incompeten, not represantitive and illegal.
@Amjad
Afghanistan should deport 80,000 Pakistani day laborers that toil in Kandahar and Kabul back to Pakistan and deprive them of earning their livelihoods.
Pakistan is used to do whatever USA wants it to do. You should look inward and worry about all your problems in Balochistan, the sectarian killings in Karachi and all the terrorist organizations running amok in Punjab. Give Afghanistan a break.
Pakistan should do what is in its best interests like any other country. Pakistan should deport all illegal Afghanis and close the border so that the Afghanis don't come back in the next few years. Afghanistan is used to doing whatever India tells it to do.
@Ex-Diplomat: Your Excellency,How nieve on your part to continue to be prejudiced against Pakistan Army holding the remote,where in the world it is not.What happens in the policy corridors of Washington.The Armed Forces representing the strength of a particular country have always been and will continue to influence the policy making.In case of Pakistan,it is no different,but unfortunately some in the west find it a hurdle to have their way even at the cost of national interests of Pakistan.It will not happen Sir,so start accepting the reality.
we should call afghanistan to take back its people. if you see in the crime scenes of peshwar and karachi you will see it is being dominated by afghans. i don't blame it as plan, but due to poverty. refuges are more vulnerable to it. so let afghans go back to their country, including all the taliban. then let them decide what they want by themselves.thank you.
Nice move :)
@Cautious: Our interest will be served best if we just close western border and send back millions of refugees ... We can have healthy society and have good trade relations with Afghanistan. Rest of the world will give some respect and head us too on international forums. We must educated our own people living in bordering/FATA region so that they learn to respect international borders between two countries. All other solutions are short to mid-term and will haunt us again in the future.
Then please get out of Afganistan as fast as u can and send all those talibs to kabul with whom Karzai wants to talk
WHATEVER ? Yes including stop contacts with Taliban Thank you F.M@Frantic: As long as Pakistan needs free money from others.
Pakistan should keep its interests first - Dont bow down to Afghan's puppet regime
please stop kidding!
plz close all borders with afghanistan completely,,,,,,because these people causing lot of trouble in pakistan......
I might be reading it wrong but are we agreeing to support the whim of Afghan people solely or is this an unconditional commitment to support the US exit-solution via Afghan proxy? I think situation will be much clearer once the US-Afghan-Taliban talks have finished ... too early to commit to anything in particular at the moment. Well played HRK.
Dear Madam,
No one in the international community has any doubts in what you are saying or on the intentions of the civilian Govt in Pakistan. Unfortunately however we cannot take you seriously as long as the Pakistani Military has a remote control over the civilians and is actually the controller of Pakistan's foreign policy.
Regards from a very cold Zurich Ex- Diplomat to Pakistan and Afghanistan
Did she really mean Pakistan will do whatever "Taliban" wants wants?! Not new - past 2-3 decades that's been the case.
Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, Afghan-driven....as long as we say which Afghans...aka the Taliban!!
Well Said FM.!! I think from now we should apply the Non intervention policy towards our neighbors East, West north n south even thousands of miles away. Yeah we can sympathies with anyone we like but we should stay out of influencing and infiltrating any other country and let any other country to influence us in our affairs as well. Be it American, Chinese etc etc.
For how long we'll keep doing whatever others want us to do??? When will we be able to decide what we ought to do and what goes in line with our national interest.... WHEN???