PrunefaceAziz
...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in goodjihadis and
badjihadis as a matter of national policy...
, said on Wednesday that Islamabad needs to tighten up on border management with Afghanistan so as to "prevent the movement of holy warriors and miscreants."
He said challenges in Afghanistan have multiplied since January 2015 and that the deteriorating security situation is affecting the entire region.
Addressing a conference in Islamabad, organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), and entitled "Achieving Peace in Afghanistan: Challenges & Prospects", Aziz said: "The persistent conflict and the failure of military strategy to bring peace has taken a heavy toll on both Afghan cops and the civilians.
"The lack of progress on grinding of the peace processor, emerging threat of ISIS, drugs trafficking, the resettlement of returning refugees are some of the issues that have been making it difficult for Afghanistan to create a stable country. This situation is affecting not only Afghanistan's neighbors but the entire region," he said.
He said that these issues were also affecting relations between Pakistain and Afghanistan "despite our centuries old bonds of common culture, heritage, traditions and religion."
Aziz stated that a peaceful prosperous Afghanistan was in Pakistain’s interest and that they believed a politically negotiated settlement was the most viable option for bringing lasting peace to Afghanistan.
"Towards this end, Pakistain has been making sincere efforts for facilitating talks between the Afghan government and Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
. Our consistent and clear message to the Taliban has been that they must give up violence and join the grinding of the peace processor. Our efforts led to Murree talks in July, 2015 and the setting up of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) in December, 2015. However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything...
both times the process was undermined by forced who were against reconciliation."
He said that terrorism was a major threat to regional and international peace and that Pakistain had also suffered at the hands of terrorism over the past few years but that achievements have been made in their efforts to eliminate terrorist organizations from around the country.
"The tribal areas particularly North Wazoo have been cleared. Any remnants of the dismantled groups are now being targeted through Operation Rad-ul-Fasad. Our success in counter-terrorism has been recognized by U.S Congressional leaders and military commanders who visited the Pakistain-Afghanistan border
...also known as Pashtunistan, home of ignorance, poverty, and automatic weapons...
including North Waziristan."
He said that in line with this, Pakistain needs to ramp up border management with Afghanistan.
According to him the aim of this is to prevent the movement of terrorists.
"This would prevent the movement of holy warriors and miscreants and would help address the Afghan allegations regarding TTA (Tehrik-e-Taliban Afghanistan) and Haqqani network
s presence in Pakistain. We have also been stressing upon the Afghan government to take action against the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain) and JuA (Jamaat-ur-Ahrar) sanctuaries in Afghanistan who have been crossing through the mostly non-existent border and launching terrorist attacks in Pakistain."Meaningful engagement between Pakistain and Afghanistan was of key importance to Islamabad, he said adding that in recent weeks a number of high-profile delegations have visited Kabul as part of efforts to strengthen engagement between the two neighbors.
He also outlined the assistance Pakistain has provided to Afghanistan including transit trade facilities through its ports under the Afghanistan Pakistain Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), the housing of refugees and development projects Islamabad has undertaken in Afghanistan.
"I would also like to highlight that connectivity with Afghanistan is an important element on our agenda. Exploitation of Afghanistan's vast mineral resources need rail-road connectivity between Afghanistan and Pakistain so that the transportation of the extracted minerals to the outer world could be realized.