Former ambassador Javaid Hussain has said the presence of the United States and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan could worsen the situation instead of helping bring about stability.
He said a myriad of internal conflicts gripped the country, while delivering a lecture on 'Pak-Afghan relations: past, present and future" organised by the Punjab University as part of it's 125th anniversary celebrations on Tuesday.
He believed that ethnic and tribal conflict, and rivalries were deeply ingrained in the nation's fighting culture and would not be easy to root out from Afghani society, even if foreign forces withdrew from the country.
He discussed the ties between the two countries through the spectrum of their domestic situations, the regional environment and the concerns of the international community. He suggested that the government initiates dialogue with the tribes living in the border areas and restrain them from crossing border into Afghanistan illegally to improve relations with Afghanistan. He said internal weaknesses and instabilities were the main causes of the worsening Pak-Afghan ties.
Hussain said that besides the United States, China, India and the Central Asian nations all had interest in ties with Afghanistan and that Pakistan needed to be very careful in crafting its foreign policy for these reasons. He said that after the attacks of 9/11 the scenario changed completely as Pakistan supported the US war on terror against Afghanistan's Taliban government. To a question, he said that terrorism is one of the most important issues on the agenda of the international community. He said fighting the war on terror was also in the interest of Pakistan. The PU Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran also spoke at the occasion.