ISLAMABAD: Legislators in the Upper House of parliament on Tuesday said that Pakistan on its territory had taken decisive actions against terrorist groups, and its successes were far more than those of the US in Afghanistan.
The senators expressed these views while commencing debate on the recent visit of the US secretary of state to South Asia in the wake of the new US policy. They said that the US should fulfil its commitments made for bringing peace to Afghanistan, adding that there was no military solution to the Afghan conflict. They stressed that a course of dialogue should be perused to bring peace and stability to the war-torn country.
The members said that the US should not hold Pakistan responsible for its own failure in Afghanistan.
Saying that Pakistan would never accept Indian hegemony in the region, they emphasised the need for maintaining “unity in our ranks” to cope with the challenges on the internal and external fronts.
Taking part in the debate, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the way forward for Pakistan was to dismantle the jihadi infrastructure of the ’80s, dissociate from the narrative of General (r) Pervez Musharraf and civilianise foreign policy formulation instead of viewing it from the perspective of security establishment alone. He said that he was shocked that Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif only reiterated the narrative of Pervez Musharraf.
“Musharraf used to confront foreign interlocutors by asking them to give him phone numbers and addresses of the Afghan Taliban hiding in Pakistan and he would go after them. Khawaja Asif also informed the Senate that the visiting US secretary of state had been asked to give the addresses of Taliban leaders for taking action,” he said. “Musharraf’s policy of denial continues.”
He said that many had welcomed the recent statements of Kh Asif and Ahsan Iqbal regarding putting our own house in order, and asked why there wasn’t a hint about it in the foreign minister’s address. “Is it that Khawaja Asif was not fully in charge of the policy formulation?” he asked.
He advised Khawaja Asif to simply pursue investigations into the identity card and passport issued to Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor Akhtar.
He said that because of the disastrous foreign policy, Pakistan was losing heavily. Last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani banned Pakistani trucks from entering Afghanistan, warning that Pakistan would not be able to trade with central Asian states, he said, adding that the annual bilateral trade between the two countries had come down from $2.7 billion to less than $1.5 billion. “With the new trade route of Chabahar, Kabul’s dependence on Pakistan has further decreased.” Pakhtuns on both sides were the victim and the country was losing, but no one seemed to care, he said.
He said that after Trump’s new policy, drone strikes had been resumed, as militants were hiding and changing locations.
Published in Daily Times, November 1st 2017.
.jpg)
