With the exception of the resilient Afghans themselves, no people have paid a higher price for the conflict in Afghanistan than the people of Pakistan. Through decades of conflict, Pakistan has dealt with the responsibility of taking care of more than 4 million Afghan refugees. Guns and drugs have also flowed into our country. The wars have disrupted our economic trajectory and radicalized fringes of our own society

Imran Khan

We have arrived at a rare moment of hope for Afghanistan and for our region. On Sept. 12, delegations from the Afghan government and the Taliban finally sat down in Doha, Qatar, to begin negotiations toward a political settlement that would bring the war in Afghanistan to an end.

With the exception of the resilient Afghans themselves, no people have paid a higher price for the conflict in Afghanistan than the people of Pakistan. Through decades of conflict, Pakistan has dealt with the responsibility of taking care of more than 4 million Afghan refugees. Guns and drugs have also flowed into our country. The wars have disrupted our economic trajectory and radicalized fringes of our own society. The Pakistan I had known growing up in the 1960s and 1970s changed in some deeply unsettling ways.

This experience taught us two important lessons. First, that we were too closely intertwined with Afghanistan by geography, culture and kinship for events in that country not to cast a shadow on Pakistan. We realized Pakistan will not know real peace until our Afghan brothers and sisters are at peace.

We also learned that peace and political stability in Afghanistan could not be imposed from the outside through the use of force. Only an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process, which recognizes Afghanistan’s political realities and diversity, could produce a lasting peace.

So, when President Trump wrote to me in late 2018 to ask for Pakistan’s assistance in helping the United States achieve a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan, we had no hesitation in assuring the president that Pakistan would make every effort to facilitate such an outcome — and we did. Thus began arduous rounds of talks between the United States and the Taliban, which culminated in the February U.S.-Taliban peace agreement. This agreement, in turn, has laid the groundwork for talks between the Afghan leadership and the Taliban.

The path we have traveled to get here wasn’t easy, but we were able to press on thanks to the courage and flexibility that were on display from all sides. The United States and its allies facilitated the prisoner exchange between Kabul and the Taliban. The government of Afghanistan and the Taliban responded to the Afghan people’s yearning for peace.

The intra-Afghan negotiations are likely to be even more difficult, requiring patience and compromise from all sides. Progress could be slow and painstaking; there may even be the occasional deadlock, as Afghans work together for their future. At such times, we would do well to remember that a bloodless deadlock on the negotiating table is infinitely better than a bloody stalemate on the battlefield.

All those who have invested in the Afghan peace process should resist the temptation for setting unrealistic timelines. A hasty international withdrawal from Afghanistan would be unwise. We should also guard against regional spoilers who are not invested in peace and see instability in Afghanistan as advantageous for their own geopolitical ends.

Imran Khan is prime minister of Pakistan. He wrote this article for Washington Post.

By Muhammad Omar Iftikhar

The diplomatic relations between countries from across the South Asian region to North America have always been in the news. This is so because of the regional alliances that have been forging between countries.

Where Pakistan and China have been moving forward with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Egypt has recently called for reviving its historic relations with Sri Lanka. The ties between China and India have been sour following the Ladakh crisis.

It is yet to be seen how they will move on with their differences.  Furthermore, Afghanistan and the US are trying to end past bitterness and enter into a new era of peace. Recently, the UAE and Bahrain announced to fortify their ties with Israel. Furthermore, according to reports, China and Cuba are also anticipating to add value to their diplomatic ties.

These regional alliances need to be bolstered continuously because of the economic and trade interests of the countries that are linked with it. This enables the countries part of these alliances to put their objectives on the table so that any doubts and confusion can be handled smoothly.

For Pakistan, its diplomatic relations with China brings fruitful impacts on the CPEC and between their all-weathered relation that Islamabad and Beijing have been enjoying for decades.

When talking about diplomatic ties, we cannot ignore the US-Iran relation that remains turbulent. US-Russia ties have been more or less unsettled ever since the Cold War ended.

It is imperative for countries – both present in a region or across continents – to understand their boundaries, respect their agenda, and pursue a win-win situation. The need of the hour for diplomats and ambassadors is to uphold the spirit of harmony, tolerance, mutual trust, and interfaith harmony to co-exist in the world that is already burdened with so much abhorred.

LAHORE/ KARACHI: Ousted prime minister and PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif has claimed that his ouster from the premiership in 2017 was the result of ‘dubious accountability system and political victimisation’.

In 2018, an accountability court sentenced the three-time premier to seven-year rigorous imprisonment after it found him guilty in Al-Azizia reference, one of the three graft cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in line with the apex court order.

Prior to his sentence, the Supreme Court disqualified him in Panama Papers case and ordered NAB to file corruption references against him.

In a tweet from his official handle on Saturday, he quoted an example of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddqui, who was removed from his post following controversial speech against state institutions.

The statement comes two days after Nawaz, who is currently in London since last year undergoing treatment of his undiagnosed illness, banned his party members from holding off-the-book meetings with military and intelligence officials.

“This is the reality of the accountability through which three-time elected prime minister was victimised, sentenced and declared absconder,” Nawaz wrote on his official Twitter handle.

He said in a bid to punish him the country has been “drowned” and added that no one would be allowed to create further mess in the country.

Nawaz also held a telephonic conversation with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman earlier today.

Sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune that the two opposition leaders discussed options to topple the PTI-led government which also includes resigning from the assemblies.

They also exchanged views on appointing the head of newly-formed Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance of opposition parties and reportedly also approved the formation of committee to decide the matter of stepping down from legislative assemblies, the sources added.

Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif while endorsing the no holds barred speech of his elder brother and party supremo at the last week’s APC has said that it was in line with the law and the Constitution.

Speaking to senior journalists and media persons in Lahore, Shehbaz set aside the impression that he believed in politics of reconciliation. He also reiterated that the decisions taken during the opposition’s multi-party confab will be implemented in letter and spirit.

The former Punjab chief minister said the incumbent government could not be allowed to rule anymore and should be sent packing. He also alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was trying his best to get him arrested.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Senate Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has said that army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had invited the JUI-F delegation for a meeting wherein he insisted that the party ‘calls off the Azadi March’ held against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.Haideri revealed that not only the army chief asked them to abort the anti-government protest, but he also urged them not to ‘interfere in what we [establishment] are doing with Nawaz Sharif’.

In Oct, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman led thousands of anti-government protesters in the name of Azadi March to Islamabad in a bid to oust prime minister Imran Khan, though the disruption fell short of what organizers had planned. Thousands of supporters reached the capital Islamabad on Oct. 31, holding a two-week sit-in on the city’s main highway.

Later, Fazlur Rehman has said that he called off his anti-government Azadi March after being assured that a ‘change’ will take place in December. He went on to say that he was told that if he ends the sit-in, the general elections would be held in the next three months.

Earlier, the military spokesperson, Major Gen Babar Iftikhar, told a news channel about two meetings between army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and former Sindh governor and PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair.

The discussion during these meetings revolved around Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, the spokesperson had claimed.

However, Zubair admitted to meeting the army chief in a personal capacity. He rejected the impression that any relief was sought for the Sharifs in those meetings.

Before this, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed revealed that a delegation of parliamentary leaders met Gen Bajwa at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi.

He made this claim a day after the opposition’s all-parties conference where they announced the formation of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance against the government and called for an end to the interference of the military establishment in politics.

Meeting between Bajwa and Opp leaders

It was revealed that the opposition lawmakers met Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.

The reports raised many questions, considering that opposition parties had taken a strong position against the military’s role in politics just a day earlier.

This could be a ‘routine’ meeting, as lawmakers often meet the military top brass to discuss the issues that pertain to the national security, but the secrecy that shrouded it till the word came out has given rise to speculations.

Gilgit-Baltistan issues

According to Senator Sherry Rehman, the meeting which was held on the request of the army chief was convened to discuss the ‘sensitive’ issues pertaining to Gilgit-Baltistan in the wake of ‘increasing Indian aggression’.

The political issues did not come up during the meeting, said the PPP leader, adding the party agenda remained limited to the issues pertaining to the GB region. The army chief said the political parties needed to strengthen the parliamentary democracy, she admitted, refusing to give further details.

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 26 (DNA) – The Pakistan Hindu Council has announced that it will be ending its protest outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, the council’s president, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said on Saturday.

Thousands of Hindus from across the country gathered outside the embassy on Thursday. They staged a sit-in calling out the Indian government over its lack of investigation in the killing of 11 migrant Hindus in India’s Jodhpur.

On August 9, a Hindu family that had migrated to Lodta Haridasot were found dead at their residence in a village under mysterious circumstances.

The protesters have accused India’s secret service of poisoning the family and have demanded a detailed investigation into the case.

“We have decided to end the protests for now,” Vankwani said. “But this is just a warning for the Indian forces and government. If our demands are not met, we take our protest to the Wagah Border,” he warned.

He added that they will file a petition over the matter in court. “We have prepared a declaration resolution resolve and have pasted a copy of it outside the Indian Embassy as well.”

He told the minister that the daughter of the deceased head of the family, Shrimati Mukhi, had filed an FIR in Sanghar over the incident, nominating the RSS and BJP for their involvement in the murder of her family members.

She said that her father, mother and other family members were murdered after they refused to spy on Pakistan and issue anti-Pakistan statements at the behest of Indian intelligence agency RAW, he added.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Office had summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires to register Pakistan’s concerns over the mysterious deaths of the family. According to a statement by the ministry, the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi has asked the Indian government to provide copies of the FIRs and initial investigations reports in the case.

“India has failed to share any substantive details regarding the cause and circumstances of the deaths,” the statement added. The foreign ministry has, however, assured the protesters that it will keep urging the Indian government to investigate the matter. DNA

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