Baradar in Pakistan, but 'free to meet, contact anyone': FO

Mofa spokesperson says govt has evolved consensus on tackling drone. Phone tapping issue raised with US

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday reiterated that Taliban leader Mullah Baradar was in Pakistan, but was free to meet anyone to advance talks aimed at bringing peace in Afghanistan, but denied it had received confirmation over a high peace council that was due to meet him.

“Pakistan has released Mullah Baradar to facilitate peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” read a transcript of the Foreign Office Spokesperson Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry’s weekly briefing in Islamabad on Thursday.

“He is free to meet and contact anyone to advance the peace process.”

Confirming that Baradar was in Pakistan, the spokesperson said there had been no confirmation on when the Afghan High Peace delegation will arrive in the country to hold talks with the former Taliban commander.

Afghan Taliban have decried that despite claims that Baradar had been release, deemed key a figure for the talks, he remained in Pakistan custody and thus not free to hold talks.

The issue was due to be raised by Afghanistan during the trilateral talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and British premier David Cameron in London on the sidelines of the World Islamic Economic Forum. During the meeting, Pakistan had reaffirmed its commitment to the Afghan peace process.

DGMO meeting in doubt

With recent cross-border incidents of violence along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary on Pakistan’s eastern border raising temperatures with India, the FO spokesperson said that some talks between the commanders on the border had taken place to cool the issue.

“DG MOs are already in touch through hotline contact. I understand they discussed the matter on October 25 and 29 and concurred to normalise the situation along the LoC and the Working Boundary. A sectoral flag meeting was held between Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Force along Working Boundary on October 29,” a transcript of the spokesperson’s answers read.

“Both sides agreed to observe ceasefire and resolve issues through local level flag meetings.”

The meeting of the DGMOs had been proposed in the meeting between prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian premier Manmohan Singh late last month, however, a face to face meeting between the DGMOs has yet to materialise.

Pakistan is fully committed to implementing the decision of the two Prime Ministers that the DGMOs should meet to resolve the issue of ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary, the spokesperson said on Thursday.

In response to a question on resolving Kashmir, the spokesperson said Pakistan was committed to the bilateral dialogue process with India to address all outstanding issues.

He added that while Pakistan hoped and expect that the Indian side will engage in a meaningful dialogue, Pakistan also remains open to the third party mediation, especially on Kashmir dispute, on which there are outstanding resolutions of the UN Security Council.

The spokesperson added that the Prime Minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz will be traveling to India to participate in Asia-Europe meeting on November 10-11, 2013 though a meeting with the Indian External Affairs Minister has not been finalised yet.

Drone strikes counter productive

With the foreign office issuing a condemnation over a drone strike in Miranshah early on Thursday, the spokesperson was pushed over what action that the country was going to take on the strikes.

“On drone strikes, our position has been very clear. The government has already evolved a national consensus on this matter and is perusing a strategy whereby this matter is being taken up with the US bilaterally as well as being raised at the international forums.”

Pressed on what measures the government was taking on halting the strikes in light of comments by a member of US congress that Pakistan can halt the drone strikes if it wanted, the spokesperson said that the government was pursuing a strategy based on the consensus achieved within the country and that the government’s stance on the strikes remained that they are counter-productive.

Phone tapping

Asked whether the government had taken any measures over possible tapping of Pakistani phones by the US, the spokesperson said that the matter had been raised with the Americans in June this year.

“Any act which impinges on the sovereignty of any country and privacy of citizens is a matter of concern. We have taken up this matter with the US and are trying to resolve this matter.”