A seven member Afghan delegation arrived from Kabul on Monday, March 27, 2017 for the sixth and final meeting of Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Committee (PAJC) as part of CRSS-WPSO Pak-Afghan track 1.5/II project Beyond Boundaries Phase II. The meeting was held from March 27 – 31, 2017, in Islamabad.
The Afghan delegation members included Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, head of executive council of the High Peace Council; Elay Ershad, Member of Afghan Parliament; Mozammil Shinwari, former Deputy Commerce & Trade Minister; Khalid Pashtoon, Member of Afghan Parliament; Rahim Danish, Senior Journalist; Mirwais Yasini, Member of Afghan Parliament and First Deputy Speaker, Lower House of Afghan Parliament; and Humira Saqib, from WPSO. The Pakistani side included Dr. Shoaib Suddle, former IG Police and federal tax ombudsman; Qazi Humayun, former Ambassador; Mian Sanaullah, former Ambassador; Tahir Khan, Senior Journalist; Ayesha Gulalai Wazir, Member of National Assembly- PTI, and Lt General (Retd) Asif Yasin Malik, former Defense Secretary. Apart from the two delegations, International Regional expert, Ms. Anne Wilkens, former Ambassador of Sweden to Pakistan and Afghanistan also participated and acted as the Chair for the PAJC dialogue.
During the first two days of the workshop, the members of Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Committee held three dialogue sessions during which they discussed important bilateral issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan such as transit trade, security, refugees, health, media, and opportunities for cooperation in education, sports, arts and culture. In the third session they reviewed policy recommendations of the previous meetings of Beyond Boundaries II and unanimously drafted a joint declaration.
Chairing the opening session, Ms. Ann Wilkens welcomed both the delegations and opened the floor by putting forth two ways of looking at a track 1.5/2 group; 1) Focus on the main problems between the two countries; 2) Have an impact on smaller matters such as the exchange of artists, students, sports and so on.
Afghan delegate Abdul Hakeem Mujahid was of the view that given the shared culture and religion, Pakistan and Afghanistan should have a very strong relationship. He was also optimistic about the meeting in London between Hanif Atmar and Sartaj Aziz convened by the British Government to break the ice between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He stated that the border issue is beyond the capacity of the track 1.5/2 PAJC group and hence this group should not debate on it. However, he also stated that the international stakeholders can play a key role for regional peace.
Dr. Shoaib Suddle from Pakistan side stated that the two neighbors have faced insurmountable difficulties in their bilateral history and have no option but to deal with each other to move forward towards peace. The Beyond Boundaries’ meetings over the last two years have extensively discussed the issue of the Durand Line which was not the mandate of this forum and not something the two delegations could decide the fate of. What this group could do, he said, was contribute, urge the both governments and improve bilateral understanding.
On the issue of regulating the Pak-Afghan border, Lt. Gen Yasin Malik explained that there were two aspects of border between the two countries; regulated border and unregulated border. The regulated border has been functioning since 1947 facilitating smooth bilateral trade at Torkham and Chaman border sites. The issue lies with the unregulated part of the Pak-Afghan border which is used by tribes living on both sides to meet with their families. He stated that a regulatory mechanism is being made at the moment which will greatly reduce the problems of the tribesmen living there.
Afghan delegate Mr. Mozammil Shinwari, former Deputy Commerce Minister, raised the issue of two pending documents that require re-negotiations; the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and an amendment in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). He also reminded the group that there was another agreement called the “Bilateral Transport Agreement” between Pakistan and Afghanistan which was never signed. Whatever transport that is taking place between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the moment, he stated, was ad hoc.
Mr. Khalid Pashtoon, an Afghan Parliamentarian, urged the group to use the Beyond Boundaries forum to raise the issues of the stranded people on both sides.
Another Afghan delegate, Mr. Mirwais Yasini, First Deputy Speaker, appreciated Pakistan’s cooperation in terms of education. He compared Pakistan’s scholarships for Afghan students with those of Indian scholarships and stated Pakistan’s were the best for two reasons; 1) Pakistan offers scholarships in good universities to Afghan students and 2) the standard of teaching in Pakistan is better than India. He stressed that there should be more cultural music exchanges. He noted that sports was a great dimension the two countries could come closer through, adding that Afghanistan learned cricket from Pakistan and that the Afghan cricket team was doing very well now. Hence, he stated, the two countries need to increase activities in education, sports and music.
At the end of third sessions on day two, the group discussed at length various recommendations from the previous five meetings of the PAJC as well as some new recommendations. They appointed one member each on both sides to draft the final recommendations which were then shared with the Chair, she read out to both the groups, and after consultations both the groups unanimously adopted the joint declaration of policy recommendations (which is separately appended below).
The visit also included strategic high level government meetings. On Tuesday March 28, the PAJC members met with Chairman Senate, Mr. Raza Rabbani along with seven other senators at the Parliament House. They met with the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Mr. Sartaj Aziz at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday March 30. Later that day the group met with the National Security Advisor Lt. Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua at Prime Minister’s Secretariat. During the meetings the Joint Declaration was presented and shared with these senior government officials (reports from sideline meetings are under separate tab below).
In addition, the programme also included visits to the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) on March 29, 2017, and Quaid-e-Azam University on March 30, 2017 for lectures by PAJC members on “Pak –Afghan Relations: Explaining Perspectives”. These university visits were aimed to reach out to youth and academia, to counter misperceptions about each other and improve their understanding on the Pak-Afghan bilateral relations (reports from university visits under separate tabs below).
The visit also included media interactions of PAJC members with exclusive talk shows on Khyber TV, Capital TV, Dawn TV, and AAJ TV (covering the debate at Qaud-i-Azam University) discussing Pak-Afghan bilateral relations. Media coverage of the visit and recordings of TV shows are also uploaded below under separate sections.
The sixth meeting and the visit of PAJC concluded with CRSS hosting a Pak-Afghan musical evening “Celebrating Culture Beyond Boundaries”, at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) on Thursday 30 March from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Federal Minister for Information, Ms. Mariam Aurangzeb was the Chief Guest. The musical evening had Afghan and Pakistan singers performing live along with traditional local musicians. The singers included Hamid Shidai from Afghanistan, Wisal Khayyal and Malalay Khan from Pakistan, who all sang in Darri, Pashto and Urdu. The singers enthralled an audience of about 200 which included many Afghan citizens living here, Pakistanis from all walks of life and many diplomats, besides these both PAJC delegates attended the event which was also covered by many leading TV channels.
The Chief Guest, Minister Aurangzeb in her opening remarks said: “I think we all need to speak the language of music and love. I think to prosper and to be more progressive, peace is the only solution for the people of both the courtiers”. Mirwais Yasini, Afghan Member of Parliament and former Deputy Speaker, as head of the Afghan delegation spoke after the Minister and said: “Our destiny is together. Politics might divide us, personal interests or regional interests of some countries might divide us. But, we will be together and we will remain together and we will die together”. Afghan Parliamentarian, Ms. Elay Ershad in her concluding remarks said: “It is the 21st century when borders dividing the nations are being removed, but we plan to erect them further. But, these frontiers cannot separate us because no-one can divide brothers and sisters, and families”. Tea/ Coffee and refreshments were served before the performances. The crowd that attended the event greatly appreciated the performances and efforts by CRSS to organize a Pak-Afghan cultural musical initiative; a fusion of both cultures.
