Berlin roundtable: Maleeha urges Nato nations to examine their Afghan policy
War that yielded a stalemate cannot now be expected to produce a “victor’s peace.”: Lodhi
A file photo of former ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi. PHOTO: APP
Reacting sharply to criticism by a German MP of Pakistan’s Afghan policy, Dr Maleeha Lodhi said that Pakistan had consistently called for a negotiated political settlement to end the war.
Speaking at a roundtable organised in Berlin by a leading German think tank, the former Pakistani envoy to the US and the UK said that the MP’s characterisation of Pakistan’s stance as being double faced was both false and unwarranted.
According to a press release received on Sunday she said that rather than assail Pakistan the Western community should examine their record for the past decade and ask what the long war in Afghanistan achieved. For a decade, she said, Nato countries wanted Pakistan “to do more to wage war,” but now they expected Pakistan “to do more to wage peace.” In both cases they sought “to shift the heavy lifting to Pakistan.”
No victors
She said a war that yielded a stalemate cannot now be expected to produce a “victor’s peace.” A “negotiated peace,” based on mutual accommodation and concessions was the only realistic way forward.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2013.