To make a seminar on the Taliban problem meaningful, it should be held in some place like Tashkent.
KARACHI: Britta Petersen’s article “Bonn minus Pakistan” (December 6) was excellent — pithy, constructive and to the point. What she has said about Pakistan, its economy and infrastructure, is largely true. But I feel she hasn’t fully understood the importance of the Salala attack in which 26 Pakistani soldiers were killed. The Pakistani leadership was so badly miffed that it was in no mood to attend any conference, not even if it had been held in Havana or Buenos Aires where the delegates could at least have had a jolly good holiday.
A number of months ago, Dr Christian Brecht, the former German consul general in Karachi, had invited me to meet a visiting delegation of German parliamentarians from the opposition SPD party. At the time, I had expressed my reservation about holding such a conference in a country within the European Union. As predicted, nothing worthwhile came out of the meeting except for the usual political clichés. It was rather like holding an international conference in Kyoto, attended by the representatives of 90 nations, to discuss how the drug trade from Colombia can be curbed.
To make a seminar on the Taliban problem meaningful, it should be held in some place like Tashkent and attended by the heads of state of Afghanistan, Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan and representatives of the Taliban. But before this can be achieved, there should be international pressure on those Arab countries which are financing the militants operating in Pakistan.
Anwer Mooraj
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2011.
