The Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Committee group met with Afghanistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hikmet Karzai in Kabul on Feb 19, 2017, on the sidelines of the 4th PAJC meeting.
Mr. Hikmet Karzai while welcoming the PAJC group talked in detail with them. He said Innocent Afghans are being arrested in Pakistan, so far 200-300 have been arrested. He questioned that there was no justification for shelling on villages in Ningarhar by Pakistan forces. In a reference to attacks in Pakistan in recent past, he said I have buried five family members in recent weeks, following the January 10 mosque attack in Deh Mazang, and those in Kandahar. I think nobody else can feel Pakistan’s pain better than Afghans can.
He further said that for us there are three constituencies in Pakistan; people of Pakistan to whom we are deeply indebted, civilian government, there is no problem with that, and the military establishment- That is the real issue.
Speaking on the border closure by Pakistan (the meeting took place after two days of the closure), he said we have decided to exercise strategic restraint. Refrain from blame-game and also put hold on resorting to options such as WTO to challenge unilateral border closure. Moves to deescalate tensions have to come from across the border.
He informed the group that in the last 9 months I visited Pakistan 14 times and the objective and mission was to reduce tensions and find a joint way forward. Every time I explained to my interlocutors that an entire generation including myself knows Pakistan as a refugee having lived there. The refugees from Afghanistan had only have seen war and conflict .They all had good memories, they look at Pakistan differently. But the next generation wouldn’t know Pakistan. I kept telling friends in Islamabad that we are running against time. We are ready to work with anybody for peace through a sincere partnership; because at the end of the day, it is actions that matter.
Talking about the QCG failure, he said that by engaging in talks we proved to the world our resolve for dialogue. We thought it could be a good mechanism but it couldn’t achieve its objectives. None of the 26 benchmarks set out by QCG were fulfilled. The primary objective of the QCG was to pursue talks and action against irreconcilables. But there has only been back and forth without any progress. Benchmarks included: calling on Afghan government to open doors of talks to Taliban without preconditions. We dropped preconditions. It also called on members to stop facilitation of Taliban such as treatment and infrastructure. Another was related to IEDs: to stop supplies of elements of IEDs; ammunition and accessories.
Coming to the “Moscow Talks” for peace in Afghanistan, he said the regional processes have unfortunately not been effective. As long as this mechanism can complement our process it is ok. We appreciated the Russian initiative as long as it can complement ours. Moscow meeting was productive and constructive.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs DG Regional Affairs, Mr. Ashraf Haideri said that we participated in Moscow talks because we can’t allow others to take initiatives on our behalf. We still believe our peace process is the best. Russians don’t want it to turn into another Heart of Asia process. Afghanistan wants all stakeholders to become part of engagement instead of containment of problems in Afghanistan. Russians and others agreed to the involvement of the US in the process. Russians proposed to have some reconcilable Taliban as observers but Afghanistan rejected. We told Russians that in the long-run the engagement with Taliban will be against their interests.