Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri will visit Kabul from 7 to 9 December to discuss holding of Jirgas to activate the traditional institution to bring down violence and promote peace in the border areas of the two countries, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said here on Monday.
In her weekly press briefing, the spokesperson said that Foreign Minister's visit is a follow up of the meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and President Hamid Karzai that took place at the Iftar Dinner hosted by President Bush in Washington in September this year.
She said that the Foreign Minister's visit is also part of the regular contacts to discuss bilateral relations and further steps needed to bring about peace and calm in the bordering areas between the two countries.
She said that he would also inform Afghan leadership about the comprehensive strategy that we are following in our borders areas. "We hope that a comprehensive strategy on similar lines is implemented to promote political reconciliation, economic reconstruction apart from military that already is taking place in Afghanistan," she added.
Tasnim said that President Musharraf has already proposed a Marshal Plan for Afghanistan, particularly for its southern and eastern parts as an economic component of the comprehensive strategy. She said that it was for the Nato forces to decide what and how they wanted to do to bring about permanent peace in that war torn country.
PAKISTAN DEMINING CONTINGENT In reply to a question, the spokesperson said that Pakistan's demining contingent will work in co-ordination with the United Nations and not under the UN in Lebanon as Pakistan had made offer to send its contingent for demining in response to a request received from the Prime Minister of Lebanon.
However, she said that "the UN has already started demining action and divided the area in four zones. "We got in touch with the UN and informed them of our readiness to provide our contingent and we were informed that in the process of rotation, they would let us know when our contingent is required" she added.
RELEASE OF TAHIR MIRZA The spokesperson said that the British convict Tahir Hussain was not released on the desire of Prince Charles or Prime Minister Tony Blair but President himself exercised his constitutional right to pardon a convict.
She said that Tahir's case was already under review as is evident from the postponement of his death sentence a number of time in order to enable the victim's family to reconcile with the convict or his family. "When that did not happen, the President exercised his right to pardon," she added. She said that the government of Pakistan has also been making diplomatic efforts to get release of Pakistanis detained in jails of various countries.
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