WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Hussain
Haqqani has said Pakistan and the United States have a shared interest
in a stable Afghanistan but the major challenge for both the countries
is to find common ground by taking into account political realities
within Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.
He was delivering a
lecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Pakistan, the
ambassador said, views the process of reconciliation in Afghanistan as a
significant way to move forward. “Afghanistan has its own history and
its future could best be led and shaped by the people of Afghanistan,”
he noted.
Haqqani said Pakistan believes America would benefit
more by supporting the reconciliatory approach within the Afghan society
including religiously conservative elements.
Commenting on the
current state of Pakistan-U.S. relations, he said, that there are
problems but they are not at a point, where abandonment is seen as the
final answer by either side.
Pakistan’s democratic government,
he said, is committed to working towards elimination of terrorism at
pace and time that works within its social and political order; it
cannot undertake military operations that can have blowback for us
without achieving our ultimate objective of defeating terror.
The
diplomat hoped that Pakistan and the United States would be able to
have a joint strategy for achieving the objective of creating a stable
Afghanistan in a way that Pakistan concerns were also accommodated.
The
ambassador, speaking at a time of serious strains in Pakistan U.S.
ties, termed ‘handling of two parallels narratives’ as the biggest
challenge of the bilateral relationship. The two countries, he said,
need to come out of the current “event-dictated” mode of relations.
On
Pakistan’s internal situation, he said continuation of democratic
process only can evolve a vibrant system which is able to meet both
internal and external challenges. Democracy would enable the Pakistani
nation to adopt 21st century outlook, he remarked. Richard C Blum,
chairman Blum Capital, and husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, while
appreciating ambassador’s efforts in these difficult times, said the
diplomat’s adroit advocacy of Pakistan’s position on national and
international issues is well received in Washington: Online
