A peaceful Afghanistan is more beneficial for Pakistan rather than the one in turmoil because of growing trade with Kabul that has touched $1.5 billion mark, interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said.
He was talking to newsmen on Thursday prior to presiding over first meeting of 12-member National Public Safety Commission (NPSC), which was constituted recently to oversee performance of law-enforcement agencies and recommend reforms in police, prosecution, prisons and probation services.
The NPSC headed by the interior minister comprises six MNAs Ishrat Ashraf, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Nayyar Hussain Bukhari from the opposition and Ghulam Rasool Sahi, Shabina Talat and Sher Akbar Khan from the treasury whereas National Police Bureau's (NPB) director-general Dr Shoaib Suddle was appointed as the commission's ex-officio secretary. Other members include former interior minister Lieutenant General Moinuddin Haider (Retd), Mohammad Abbas Khan, Sikander Hayat Jamali, Sabina Hassan Syed and Sarkar Abbas.
The interior minister said Pakistan had paid a heavy price in the past for supporting Afghanistan and could not afford lawlessness there. We are ready to build fence along the border but Afghanistan did not agree.
"We do not want peace and stability to deteriorate in Afghanistan; rather we are striving to further strengthen growing trade co-operation with Afghanistan," he added.
The minister expressed the hope the commission would help decrease estrangement and mistrust between the police and oversee functioning of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and Pakistan Motorway and Highway Police ultimately leading these institutions to function better.
Later, in a detailed briefing about the functioning of NPSC to its members during the introductory meeting, the minister described the establishment of the commission a significant and critical step toward the police reforms agenda of the present government.
He said Pakistan is the only country in Asia other than Japan to have instituted such a transparent system of neutral public oversight of its law-enforcement agencies. Equal representation of treasury and opposition members in the commission and most transparent process of selection of independent members of proven integrity and competence from the civil society make the whole arrangement exceedingly credible, he added.
Sherpao said one-third representation of ladies in the commission shows the government is committed to address gender imbalance in the whole governance ethos of Pakistan.
He said after the commission was notified on June 12, 2006 efforts were made to secure adequate funds to make it operational straightaway. He said formal inauguration of the commission is scheduled to be done by President General Pervez Musharraf shortly.