Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday said that Pakistan was supporting international and regional initiatives for peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, besides making sincere efforts to improve bilateral ties with the neighbouring country.
In a written reply submitted to the National Assembly on Wednesday, Khar said that the government was guided by parliamentary recommendations, which were passed with consensus with regard to peace in Afghanistan and to deal with post-2014 situation. She said that parliamentary guidelines had highlighted that Pakistan's support for the promotion of peace and stability in Afghanistan "remains the cornerstone" of the country's foreign policy.
Khar told the House that Pakistan-Afghan relations had two dimensions: "one is bilateral relations and the other is about peace and reconciliation process...the two are overlapping. "We want a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. The situation in Afghanistan affects Pakistan more than any other country. It is, therefore, in our interest to promote long-term peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan," she added.
She said that Islamabad also wanted to have excellent bilateral ties with Kabul, both in the political and economic spheres. "We have been telling all our interlocutors that the Afghan issue cannot be resolved through force. A political settlement needs to be worked out."
She noted that Afghanistan requiredan understanding among all Afghan groups. "It has to be an intra-Afghan inclusive process for peace and reconciliation. Once all Afghan parties agree to a solution, Pakistan and all other neighbours, regional countries and international community should support it," she said.
She said that Pakistan had all along supported peace efforts in Afghanistan, adding that a two-tiered joint commission co-chaired by Pakistan's Prime Minister and the Afghan President had been established on the request of Kabul. "We have also initiated and remain engaged in several trilateral and quadrilateral regional processes aimed at fostering peace and stability in Afghanistan," she said, adding that Pakistan was also working with Afghanistan and the US trilaterally in the Core Group as part of "our efforts to support the peace process".
"We are committed to an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led inclusive process of peace and reconciliation," she told the lower House of parliament. Earlier this year, in response to President Karzai's request, Khar said that former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani issued a statement appealing to all Afghan factions, including Taliban, to engage in intra-Afghan peace negotiations with the Afghan government.
The Pakistan-US-Afghanistan Core Group met on the sidelines of Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan in July this year and issued a vision statement for peace and reconciliation inAfghanistan. "While we are supporting the international and regional initiatives regarding peace and reconciliation process, we are also making consistent and sincere efforts to improve our bilateral relations with Afghanistan," she said.
In order to improve bilateral ties, she said that visits to and from Afghanistan "are going on and 2,000 scholarships have been offered to Afghan students", besides various projects out of the $300 million pledged money are being implemented. At Chicago, she said that Pakistan pledged $20 million to support the Afghan National Security Forces and at the Tokyo conference. "We have made additional pledges for the education and health sectors and in the area of capacity-building of Afghanistan."
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