Pre-conditions: Pakistan issues rejoinder to Afghan allegations

Foreign ministry spokesperson says Islamabad has not asked Kabul to snap ties with India.


Kamran Yousaf March 30, 2013
Foreign office spokesman insisted that Pakistan had not set any pre-conditions for the peace process. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Pakistan has strongly rejected Kabul’s latest recriminations that it had attached ‘pre-conditions’ to its commitment to reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan.


The foreign ministry spokesperson issued a rejoinder in the wake of statements made by the Afghan presidential spokesperson that Pakistan had ‘abandoned’ the peace process and imposed ‘impossible’ pre-conditions on any further discussions that may encourage the Taliban to lay down their weapons.

“Things were going well up to the trilateral (summit) in Britain, so we were hopeful, but soon it became clear that Pakistan had changed its position and the peace process is no longer its priority,” Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP on Thursday.

“They demanded we cut all ties to (Pakistan’s arch-enemy) India, send army officers to Pakistan for training, and sign a strategic partnership.”

But foreign office spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry insisted that Pakistan had not set any pre-conditions for the peace process. “Pakistan is wholeheartedly supporting and facilitating the peace process without any conditions or preference for any particular group or party,” Chaudhry added.



Responding to the allegations, the spokesman pointed out that the proposal for a strategic agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan had emerged from President Karzai, adding that the Pakistan government had welcomed the idea.

He also clarified that Pakistan had not demanded Afghanistan to cut all ties with India.  “Pakistan has no objection or issue with Afghanistan developing relations with any country. We have only stressed that those external forces which are using the soil of Afghanistan to destabilise Pakistan should be discouraged,” he added.

On sending Afghan army officers to Pakistan for training, Chaudhry said this was an offer made by the Pakistan government out of goodwill to contribute to the training needs of the Afghan security forces.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the peace process and stability in Afghanistan.

Tensions between the two neighbours resurfaced earlier this week when both sides accused the other of impeding the peace process.


Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2013.

COMMENTS (2)

cautious | 10 years ago | Reply

What business does Pakistan have in trying to tell Afghanistan that it should not do business with India? It's a pretty basic question that seems to elude many Pakistani's.

Foreign Leg | 10 years ago | Reply

Aha! The cat is now out of the bag as to why the Afghans chose not to have the meeting.

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