The Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Committee (PAJC) members from Pakistan visited the Gowharshad University in Kabul for lectures on the theme of “The need for dialogue among Pakistan and Afghanistan to address the security challenges in both the countries”.
Qazi Humayun, former Pakistani ambassador, said that it was quite unfortunate how the incidents in both countries claim the lives of innocents. Pak-Afghan relations will be determined by the younger generation. The people of both countries have a great and deep emotional connection with each other. We are neighbours with many commonalities, and we cannot wish away each other. There is a very strong perception in both countries that unrest in both countries is because of each other. I am quite sure that the younger generation of Afghanistan would not back the terrorists who want to hurt Pakistan. The presence of terrorist organization in our countries is very unfortunate.
Mian Sanaullah, former Pakistani ambassador, said that the two countries will sink together or swim together. There have been some positive developments during our stay here. We need to jointly defeat these terrorists. The media in both countries should be responsible and should not do negative journalism.
Mr. Tahir Khan, Pakistani journalist, said that he fully support freedom of expression in both countries. He added that the Pakistani Minister SAFRON had several times stated that the Afghan refugees had never been involved into crimes. Pakistan has also announced a new policy for Afghan refugees, now the ones with even expired POC cards would not be expelled.
The students asked how that negative perceptions had been created as they the two countries never had such a relation where people had such negative perceptions.
Qazi Humayun said that one of the reasons for these negative perceptions is the incident of Army Public School whose terrorists and facilitators were from Afghanistan. There is also a perception that India is working against Pakistan in Afghanistan. The blame-game is bad for both countries. We just don’t want Afghanistan’s territory to be used against Pakistan.
Mr. Tahir Khan said that the students should not believe in the negative propaganda, rather they should themselves read, analyze and think critically.
Qazi Humayun said that the anti-Pakistan statements by Afghan leaders leave extremely negative impact not only on the bilateral relations but also on the thinking of Pakistani population. The leaders should be considerate of these negative impacts on people-to-people relations.
While replying a students’ question if Pakistan will/ is considering revenge from Afghanistan for something they consider it to be responsible, Qazi Humayun said that Pakistan’s revenge was welcoming refugees in Pakistan in millions when the whole world though we were crazy to welcome refugees in such large numbers.