On regional peace: ‘It is a sacrilege to command politicians to follow a script’

Achakzai stresses need for policy of non-interference in Afghanistan

LAHORE:

It is impossible to envision peace in the region without political stability in Afghanistan, amicable relations with India and a resolve, by India and China, to desist from military action on the Indian Ocean, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, chairman of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), said in his address at the Lahore High Court Bar Association on Monday.

“We can have the best army in the world, but democracy, whatever its form may be, cannot function unless state institutions operate within their prescribed ambit,” he said.

Politicians or leaders can neither be invented nor created, he said. “It is a sacrilege to corrupt politicians and command them to follow a script.” The sanctity of national institutions should prevail over the power of individuals, but unfortunately, years of manipulated politics have reversed this, he said.

Achakzai said that he had asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take on the role of patron to bridge the trust deficit China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had created among people and provinces. “I asked him to hold talks with China and with the people of this country and be an adjudicator.”

He said the CPEC should be transparent and acceptable to all provinces. At present, the deal with China is being viewed with suspicion. He said it should not have turned into a national controversy. “And it wouldn’t have, if the government had kept its doors open to negotiation with the people and their elected representatives,”Achakzai said.

Peace in the region was reliant on a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan and maintaining cordial relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, he said.

Rivalry between Islamic countries, particularly Iran and Saudi Arabia, will endanger peace in the entire Muslim world, he said.

“I fear that an atmosphere of great instability is looming large – not just in our region but all over the world.”

He said, “We are all witnesses to what is happening in the rest of the world.”

Countries stomping over each other in their attempts to vie for global and regional hegemony can never bring peace, he said. “We need to steer clear of becoming a proxy state. It is ironic that previous policies have neither ensured stability nor enabled us to become one nation.”

Achakzai said without the rule of law and justice, a state or a peaceful society was not viable. “We should respect and accept the authority of elected representatives if we want a functional democracy,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2016.