A six-member Afghan media delegation comprising senior electronic and print media journalists visited the Area Study Centre for Russia, China and Central Asia, Peshawar University on Monday morning and exchanged views with the ASC researchers on Pak-Afghan relations.
The Director of ASC, Professor Dr Azmat Hayat Khan, former VC of Peshawar University Professor Dr Muhammad Anwar Khan and a senior ASC faculty member, Professor Dr Sarfaraz Khan briefed the delegation on the current situation of the Pak-Afghan relations.
The ASC director brushed aside the allegations that in the current unrest in the various Afghan provinces Pakistan had any role to play. He said: "The on-going disorder and anarchic situation, which the Karzai-led Afghan government is facing, is basically created by anti-American and anti-Karzai Afghan nationalist and religious element."
Dr Azmat Hayat told the Afghan journalists that the masses in general and a significant chunk of Afghan nationalists and religious minded people were opposing the US-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
He added: "The way US and its allies are fanning immoral values in Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan, it owes much to the current unrest in some of the provinces of Afghanistan."
The Afghan government, he stated, in a bid to side track the attention of its masses was trying to get involved Pakistan in each and every untoward event taking place under its nose. Pakistan on its part, he added, had so far done its best efforts to restore peace and normalcy inside Afghanistan and its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Dr Muhammad Anwar Khan briefed the delegation about the history and geo-strategic importance of the tribal belt between the two countries and their role in the successive periods since the times of British in this region.
Dr Sarfaraz Khan debunked the allegations that the tribal belt was being used by Pakistan to interfere in anyway into the internal matters of Afghanistan. He cited the example of deputing 80,000 Pakistani troops in North and South Waziristan agencies bordering Afghanistan and martyrdom of about 600-700 Pakistani troops in their efforts to root out miscreants and foreign terrorists from the bordering towns of the country.
The Afghan journalists had a positive inclination towards presence of coalition troops on their soil. They, however, emphasised close socio-economic and cultural relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan keeping in view the Pakistan's role in supporting the Afghans during their struggle against the Soviet occupation of their homeland.
The Afghan media delegation comprised Daoud Abdurahimzoy of Kabul Times; Abdur Raouf Likwal News Editor, Pajhwok Afghan News; Asma Habib, reporter of the BBC World Service (Dari), Kabul; Abdul Ghanee Muhaqiq, Ariana Television; Abdul Mukhtar Ghafarzoi, Shamshad Television and Khalilullah, daily Chiragh, Kabul.-PR