ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan Friday distanced itself from explicit blame
game between Pakistan and the US led coalition over the failures in war
against terrorism as well as cross-border infiltration by militants.
“Afghanistan
has nothing to do with the blame game if it was going on between some
other countries,” said Javed Loden Deputy Foreign Minister of
Afghanistan while addressing a joint press conference with the host
counterpart Salman Bashir.
He was replying to a question on the
blame game between Pakistan and the US over the cross border
infiltration of militants from both sides (Pak-Afghan border). He said,
“We (Pakistan and Afghanistan) haven’t indulged in any blame game
especially for the last three years.”
“Sharing security,
prosperity, opportunity, and challenges we have invested a lot in
confidence-building,” he said adding whatever problem was still there
“we take it as common problem. We have suffered this infiltration for
over a decade now,” he conveyed on ground situation between the lines.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir could not hide his uneasiness when his
Afghan counterpart said they suffered infiltration (obviously from
Pakistan) for a decade.
However, Bashir said at the Joint
Presser that reconciliation process initiated in Afghanistan was home
grown process of Afghan people and Pakistan will continue to extend
full cooperation on this count. Luden seconded Bashir in saying that
Afghan solution has to be Afghan led and Pakistan assisted one and
other countries would have to help as well. “All these efforts and
process of reconciliation at different levels were moving forward on a
single line and eventually they would have to be streamlined into one.”
Earlier the two led their respective delegations in the second
session of Pak-Afghan working group appointed under Joint Peace
Commission. They agreed to convene at summit level next month wherein
the respective delegations would be led by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza
Gailani and President Hamid Karzai.
“Pakistan highly values its
relations with Afghanistan and both the countries want to consolidate
these relations at all levels. Pakistan and Afghanistan both were
facing challenges and the spirit also exists there to counter these
challenges,” Salman Bashir said. However he too admitted that Pakistan
and Afghanistan were tackling with certain complicated problems.
He
told the media that during Friday’s meeting that had identified
concrete steps pre-requisite to the establishment of durable peace in
Afghanistan in particular in preparation of Summit level convening of
the joint peace commission. He clarified that Afghan High Peace Council
has its own methodology and under Professor Burhan-ud Din Rabbani it
was overlooking the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, he added.
Speaking
on the occasion Afghan foreign minister Javed Loden said terrorists
were common enemy of the two countries. Pakistan was facing terrorism
and such situation was prevailing in Afghanistan as well, he stated.
Such situation and circumstances had connected both the countries to
each other, he remarked.
The world looks towards us whenever
terror incidents take place in any corner of the world, he observed. It
was imperative to allay this perception and eliminate terrorism in
order to ensure peace in the region, he stressed.
Responding to
a question he said terror attacks in Pakistan side from inside Afghan
territory were intolerable. Afghan army along with Coalition forces had
stepped up operations against terrorists, he told. Reconciliation
process was the responsibility of Afghan people, he remarked. Stability
in Afghanistan is linked to stability in Pakistan. Much time has been
wasted. Ground has been prepared now for reconciliation process, he
noted. Practical steps will come to open in next few months, he pointed
out.
Responding to a question he said Afghanistan was as much
worried over the issue of recovery of children as Pakistan and parents
of children were. Afghan President was taking personal interest in
securing recovery of children, he told. Every possible effort will be
employed for recovery of these children if they are in Afghanistan. To
another question he said “we will keep our matters in our own hands”. Online
