President Karzai Visit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Wednesday to revive the joint grand jirga process for evolving a common strategy on furthering Kabul’s ‘reintegration and reconciliation’ plan.

The decision was taken at a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai, who flew in here late in the afternoon, met President Zardari at the Aiwan-i-Sadr soon after his arrival on a two-day visit to Pakistan.

The Afghan president’s visit is being seen as extremely important because it is taking place at a time when the two countries are redefining their ties and are expected to cooperate in engaging the Taliban for restoring peace in the war-ravaged country.

The significance being attached by Pakistan to the visit was noticeable from the presence of the entire federal cabinet, along with Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek, to receive Mr Karzai. The Pakistani gesture showed the kind of friendly ties the two countries are trying to develop after years of suspicions and political feuds.

The vibes from Afghan delegation were equally positive.

According to a roadmap agreed between the two sides after three meetings on Wednesday, a jirgagai (mini-jirga) would first be held in Kabul shortly after Afghanistan’s internal peace jirga on April 29. The jirgagai will be followed by a grand jirga in Islamabad.

The grand jirga process was initiated in 2007 as an attempt to narrow down differences between the two countries and delineate the role Pakhtun tribes straddling the Pak-Afghan border could play in fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban.

The US-backed process made a positive start, but could not really take off and the two sides, apart from the main jirga, barely managed to hold its smaller version a year later in Islamabad.

Apart from an agreement on renewing the jirga process, diplomatic sources said, the two countries were working on a joint declaration, to be issued on Thursday. The document will sketch out areas like trade, investment, education, technology transfer, communications and people-to-people contact as having the potential to make big strides.

President Karzai’s concrete assurance that the Afghan soil would not be used for terrorist activities against Pakistan was hailed by Islamabad.

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to devise a Marshal plan-like agreement for the region to banish militancy.

“The two countries need to speak the same language at international forums because both are suffering from the malaise caused by the same mindset of militancy and extremism,” Mr Zardari told Mr Karzai at the bilateral talks led by the respective presidents.

They agreed that their foreign ministers will meet on a regular basis to make their joint peace efforts meaningful.

The meeting agreed that the two countries would tell the international community that what they suffered in the war on terror was because of the faulty policies of the international community and now they should come forward to help Pakistan and Afghanistan economically, said the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

Asked about any other significance of the meeting, the spokesman said it was more meaningful, frank and candid than the previous ones.

“The two sides also agreed that the military action is not a solution to the problem and without ensuring economic uplift of the war-torn countries the menace of militancy and extremism cannot be overcome,” he said.

The Afghan delegation included Foreign Minister Dr Zalmai Rassoul, National Security Adviser Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Education Minister Dr Farooq Wardak and chargé d’affaires Majnoon Gulab.

President Zardari led the Pakistani delegation. Other members were: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Hina Rabbani Khar, Secretary General to the President Salman Faruqui and Farhatullah Babar.

Mr Zardari said in the meeting that there might be some minor differences between the solutions needed by Pakistan and Afghanistan in meeting the challenges of militancy but the root cause of the malaise being the same, the two countries needed to be on the same page, speak the same language and demand assistance from the international community with the same vigour and intensity.

President Zardari stressed the need for expanding economic cooperation, adding that Pakistan was determined to correct past mistakes to carve out a better future for posterity.

President Karzai called for forging a partnership which allowed realisation of the full potential of human and natural resources. He stressed the need for new development projects and investments in the two countries driven by energy corridors in the region.

Mr Zardari pointed out that Pakistan’s trade with Afghanistan was $1.4 billion in 2008 and there was a vast potential and great opportunity for economic cooperation. He said the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement was under negotiations and hoped it would further boost economic interaction.

The meeting hoped over three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan would be able to return to their homeland once peace and normality were restored in Afghanistan.

....Ahmad Kamal....