Post-2014: Pakistan urged to revisit Afghan vision

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan government needs to revisit its Afghan vision if it is to see a friendly, non-hostile Afghanistan, said participants of a seminar on Pak-Afghan relations after 2014.

The seminar ‘Shaping the Future of Afghanistan and Pakistan: Policy Recommendations’, organised by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) on Thursday, was attended by experts from Germany, Afghanistan and Pakistan who came up with policy recommendations to shape the future in the run-up to the 2014 pull-out of the foreign troops from Afghanistan.

“The Afghan policies of Pakistan government are rather counter-productive,” said the Executive Director of Equality for Peace & Democracy and a civil society activist from Afghanistan Nargis Nehan, while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Speaking about the prevalent lack of trust among Afghans about Pakistan’s sincerity towards peace in their country, Nehan said it owes to the recent flow of information to the Afghan people after a long blackout.

“Through the media and more open education, people in Afghanistan are now getting to know about the 1979 war and the rise of Taliban and about all those who caused that,” said Nehan, adding that the people know about the role Pakistan played in the Taliban’s rise. “This is why they are apprehensive,” said the Aghan civil society activist.

Afghan parliamentarian Sherwali Wardak said Pakistan must realise that Afghanistan has changed. “It is not the Afghanistan of 1999 (when the Taliban were ruling the country). We have our own parliament, an independent government and the people do not want any interference in our internal matters,” said Wardak.

He said the two countries must work together to first identify the root of terrorism and then to jointly fight and pull it out from the bottom.

Afghan Senator Pir Sayed Hamid Gailani said that two governments should refrain from the blame-game. “No side has credible information so a public blame game will only enhance problems. It will not resolve anything,” said Gillani. He said the two people were brotherly, only they needed more communication and cooperation at government levels.

“People are looking forward to shape the future,” commented German Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Cyrill Nunn.

Humayun Saifullah Khan, a member of the Pak-Afghan Parliamentary Friendship Group emphasised the need of stability on both sides of the border.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2012.