‘Pak role pivotal in Afghan issue’

Islamabad:Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s Special Representative on Afghanistan, has said that Pakistan is at the crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia and Middle East and this geographical setting added to the challenges for Pakistan including its relations with India, and the changing dynamics in Afghanistan.

Durrani was addressing as chief guest at the start of Two-Day International Conference “Navigating peace & security in the region and beyond: Pakistan’s role” organised here by Institute of Strategic Studies in collaboration with United States Institute of Peace (USIP here at ISS Library. Mr Durrani said that in this regard Pakistan’s role becomes pivotal as being at the front lines of the US War on Terror, it paid a tremendous cost in terms of lives – a cost completely ignored by the international community.

He opined that due to perennial tensions with India, difficult relations with Afghanistan and sanctions on Iran, trade in the region remained a victim. He concluded by saying that Pakistan and Afghanistan enjoy a symbiotic relationship and despite difficult patches in the relationship both the countries stood strong together on various issues in the past. It is important for the international community and the world to not to ignore and understand the current dispensation of power in Afghanistan and work on reconciliation steps.

However, the most pivotal point is for the Afghans to understand that the key to the stability of Afghanistan is with them. Unless they do not bring normalcy to Afghanistan no outsider including Pakistan can do much. In group sessions, the speakers were of the view that economic isolation, sanctions, the Taliban`s ideological rigidity, large scale migration and proliferation of terrorist groups are major challenges in the post-US/NATO Afghanistan. The great power competition, internal power struggles, regional fault lines, ethnic clashes, further aggravate these challenges. It was also said that peace is not only the absence of war, but also presence of development, prosperity and an open society, which are all absent in Afghanistan today.