Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said on Monday Pakistan and Afghanistan do not have any conflict and if there were some irritants, these could be addressed at multiple forums.
Speaking at the weekly media briefing she said both countries confronted some problems, but had multiple mechanisms to co-ordinate their activities in this regard. She dispelled the impression of Pakistan's involvement in the sacking of Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar from his office. "It is an internal development. The allegation is absolutely baseless."
To a question, Ms Aslam said Pakistan had centuries old ties with the Afghan people and it wanted to see peace and security in Afghanistan. She said Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR were co-ordinating on the strategy to repatriate Afghan refugees by 2009.
She said in order to ensure effective return of the Afghan refugees, some incentives were needed on part of Afghanistan such as shelter and livelihood. The spokesperson said Pakistan insisted for providing refugees $100 each in addition to shelter and said it had already contributed $5 million and tents to the displaced persons.
The spokesperson rejected a statement quoting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates about the presence of US troops in Pakistan's tribal areas. "We have already said that inside Pakistan's territory, any military action to be taken, will be solely taken by our troops," she said.
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