Pakistan wants the people of Afghanistan to have a say about their future – Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan wants the people of Afghanistan to have a say about their future – Hina Rabbani Khar

Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar has said that Pakistan wants the future of Afghanistan to be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in search of some Al-Qaida leaders but now there is a lot of pressure on the American government to pull its forces from South Asia. President of the US, Barrack Obama announced in 2008 that US will evacuate Afghanistan
by 2014 but since last one year, some clues are being given that the US think-tank may stretch the deadline to 2024.

Rabbani made it clear that Pakistan will go to any extend to make sure that there is peaceful transfer of power to the Afghan citizens. A peaceful Afghanistan is absolutely crucial for Pakistan and Rabbani said that Pakistan will stand with the people of
Afghanistan and that should be the most important thing, while deciding the future of Afghanistan.

The foreign minister said, “We’re willing to do whatever the Afghans want or expect. Once the Afghan people decide the way forward, whatever assistance Pakistan can give, it will give.”

In order to take recommendations by the regional players, a conference was organized in Bonn in December, 2011 but Pakistan did not take part in the conference as a protest to the attack on the Salala check post by the NATO forces.

Since then, Pakistan stopped the NATO supplies from its territory and as a result, NATO is getting its supplies from an alternate route through Central Asia. However, it is widely predicted that Pakistan will reopen the supplies in near future, against the
public sentiment in the country.

Rabbani said that the parliament will decide the fate of the NATO supplies but the foreign minister is optimistic about a positive outcome.  

“I cannot pre-empt what the parliament is going to decide but I would assume that should not be so much of a problem.  I’m going to hopefully ensure and push it very hard that it is no later than within a wee, first half of February is probable,” Rabbani
added.

The relations between Pakistan and the US deteriorated in 2011 and it remains to be seen that how things shape up in 2012.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=11542

Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Feb 2 2012. Filed under Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry