Govt ignores Afghan president’s negative comments

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to ignore last week’s negative comments attributed to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with regard to ties between the two countries and to continue to puruse the policy of having friendly relations with Afghanistan.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting attended, among others by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif, DG ISI Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar Malik, Chief of General Staff (CGS) Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, SAPM on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi and senior officials.
The meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, discussed the situation pertaining to Afghanistan threadbare. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to Afghanistan earlier this month had fruitful meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. The visit was termed highly successful and the statements made by the two leaders were extremely positive. Since then, the Indians have stepped up their activities to defame Pakistan and President Ashraf Ghani on various pretexts. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has activated all his channels against Pakistan and is trying to stop his successor from mending fences with Pakistan. RAW has also redoubled its efforts to widen the wedge between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The huge amount of money recently allocated and handed over to RAW to destabilise Pakistan is also being used generously for promoting the cronies of Hamid Karzai and to scuttle any attempt to improve the relations between Islamabad and Kabul, the sources said. New Delhi is using all sorts of ploys for promoting anti-Pakistan sentiments in Afghanistan. The sources said that at the same time the Indian lobby is working to mount trouble for Ashraf Ghani, so that he does not succeed in improving relations with Pakistan. All these aspects were thoroughly discussed in the meeting, the sources added. Another high-level meeting will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) at the PM House wherein all these subjects will be discussed further.
Another high-level visit will take place in a couple of weeks when an Afghan delegation will visit Islamabad early next month, the sources said. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has appointed Muhammad Masoom Stankzai as the new defence minister. He is an acclaimed Pakhtoon who is favourably disposed towards Pakistan. His appointment has come in the wake of expansion of Taliban activities under the Spring Offensive. Stanekzai had served as minister and security adviser to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was a central member of the High Peace Council (HPC) Karzai had formed to seek peace and reconciliation with the Taliban.
The new defence minister, who still requires parliamentary approval before assuming office, was critically wounded in a suicide bombing in 2011 that killed the then head of the HPC, Burhanuddin Rabbani, the father of current foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani.
In a speech on Thursday, President Ashraf Ghani said that the national unity government was determined to overcome the security challenges, mainly stemming from the rise in Taliban attacks. He said that the appointment of the new defence minister will help boost anti-insurgency operations Afghan security forces are conducting.
“We will answer war with war, let there be no ambiguity. On a daily basis I take stock of our security forces, of their well being and of their orientation. We did not seek war. The war has been imposed on us. But we will overcome this war, let there be no ambiguity,” he said. Ghani dismissed concerns his government might collapse while tackling the Taliban insurgency. He also discussed efforts his government was making to improve traditionally tense relations with neighboring Pakistan, saying he is “pleased with the nature of current discussions” the countries are engaged in. Ashraf Ghani praised Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s determination not to allow the use of Pakistani soil for terrorist attacks against Afghanistan and to treat its enemies as enemies of Pakistan.
In the meanwhile, COAS General Raheel Sharif had an important meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House before the high-level meeting. Though the meeting was pre-scheduled, they informally discussed subjects related to the internal and external security, the sources said. No word has been given about the expanded meeting but 33-word press release issued by the PM House about their exclusive meeting says: “COAS General Raheel Sharif met Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at the PM House here Monday afternoon. Matters relating to internal and external security of the country came under discussion.”