Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Afghanistan Wants Independent Relations with Pakistan: Daudzai

Afghanistan Wants Independent Relations with Pakistan: Daudzai

ISLAMABAD - Afghan Ambassador Umer Daudzai has said that Pakistan and Afghanistan want no more incident-prone relations, therefore, intended to be a bit faster in cooperation.
"In the area of reconciliation and to institutionalize our cooperation, there should be a mechanism. Our president made comments a couple of weeks ago, saying we want independent relationship with Pakistan," he said in an interview with weekly Pulse.

The ambassador said that last year in June when President Karzai visited Islamabad, he along with Prime Minister Gilani inaugurated the Joint Peace Commission. "Pakistan said that the next meeting of the commission would be held in Kabul in October, we would tell you what we can do. But before October, Professor Rabbani was assassinated." He added then Salala incident took place.

Daudzai said that counter-terrorism and peace talks are two different dimensions. For counter-terrorism, Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO have trilateral relations.

Warm relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan started to resume after high profile visits i.e. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar's visit to Kabul followed by President Hamid Karzai's trip to Islamabad. Afghan government is stressing that Pakistan should help in at least contacting Taliban for peace talks with Karzai administration.

Islamabad has already made it clear that it supports Afghan-owned, Afghan-led peace process and would do whatever possible for peace in the neighboring country. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, on request of President Karzai last week, called upon all the warring groups in Afghanistan to hold talks for peace in Afghanistan. In this backdrop, interview of Afghan Ambassador to Islamabad is of utmost importance.

"This time we want to establish independent relations with Pakistan. Secondly, we expect from Pakistan to help us in contacting Taliban for talks with Kabul," he reiterated. (Agencies)