As part of strategic sideline meetings with the government leaders to take them on board for the Pak-Afghan Track 1.5/11initiative “Beyond Boundaries” and share the policy recommendations generated from the PAJC bilateral dialogue, the Beyond Boundaries visiting six member high level Afghan delegation and some members of Pakistan delegation along with the CRSS team held a meeting with the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Security Division, Dr. Moeed Yusuf, at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on Friday 13 March, 2020.
The SAPM Moeed Yusuf welcomed the Afghan delegation noting that they are in Pakistan at a very critical time, when the Us- Taliban peace deal has recently been signed, and the intra-Afghan dialogue is soon to start. He said: “we are genuinely hopeful and genuinely excited because of the peace deal that materialized. No one thinks this is going to be an easy process. Pakistan has been facilitating fully the peace deal and process and the International community also acknowledged this fact. Our PM is on record for having a consistent stance and has at various times said that ‘Military or war is not a solution to any conflict. Only dialogue is the solution’.
Pakistan will keep on fully supporting the process for an Afghan led and Afghan owned process forward for the intra-Afghan dialogue; we did whatever we could do and will keep on doing it. He reiterated that you must realize that the peace agreement is between the US and Taliban, not with us, but as I said earlier, we will keep playing our role as a facilitator. He also told the delegation that while generally the conversation between the two countries has been primarily on security, but, the fundamentals of Pak-Afghan relations is people-to-people contacts at all levels.
Dr. Moeed Yusuf further said that for Pakistan CPEC provides a perfect opportunity to move it westward as the future is going to be led through bilateral and regional economic connectivity. The SAPM also reminded the Afghan delegation that Pakistan has invested about 1 billion dollars in the social and infra-structure development in Afghanistan, building hospitals, highways, and investing in education through scholarships. Let me assure you that Pakistan government at all levels has been formally talking about a stable, peaceful, united, democratic, and prosperous Afghanistan, because Pakistan has suffered heavily too due to conflict in Afghanistan.
Mr. Mozammil Shinwari, former Deputy Trade & Commerce Minister and Executive Director OESP, on the occasion apprised the Special Advisor to PM that as part of enhancing people-to-people contacts, both CRSS and OESP (Afghan counterpart organization) have recently started youth and women focused initiatives, such as women leaders exchanges with visits to Kabul and Islamabad, youth leaders summits again in Islamabad and Kabul, and Youth Entrepreneurs Conference in Islamabad. These deliberations are helping in changing perceptions across the border.
In his concluding remarks SAPM Moeed Yusuf once again reaffirmed and said that please take these five important messages back to Afghanistan: “we want a peaceful, stable, democratic, united, and prosperous Afghanistan”.
At the end of the meeting, head of Pakistan delegation, Dr. Shoaib Suddle presented the Joint Declaration of Policy Recommendations formulated in the PAJC dialogue/meeting.