Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that the demands of TSNM chief Sufi Mohammad will create hurdles in the implementation of the peace deal, causing irreparable damage. Talking to journalists here on Wednesday, he said that the ideology of Sufi Muhammad is disastrous to the society as killing of innocent people was no service to Islam.
The government had fulfilled its commitment on peace deal, hoping that the Taliban would also respond in a positive manner. "We are desirous of peace in Swat and we do not want to confrontation again," he said. The Minister said the government and the National Assembly had endorsed the demand of the people of Swat, and added.
"The NWFP government is in touch with the Taliban whereas we are also monitoring the situation." He said that the peace deal between the government and Taliban was for bringing normalcy in restive Swat valley and nobody would be allowed to misinterpret it.
Earlier speaking at a roundtable on Afghans in Pakistan: Plight, Predicament and the Way Forward, organised by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), he said that our enemies tried their level best to isolate Pakistan, but participation of 36 countries in the donors' conferences proved that Pakistan was not alone. Replying to a question, he said due to prevailing global recession, the commitment of 5.28 billion dollars by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) was a remarkable achievement.
He said the commitment of the FoDP and donors conferences was a manifestation of the fact that Pakistan was not isolated at the international level. "Peace in Afghanistan is key for stability in the region and Pakistan attaches great importance to its ties with Afghanistan," he added. He said that presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan had strong burden not only on our national economy, but it also affected our society.
"Afghan war was and is a battle of world powers and huge influx of refugees into Pakistan is one of its consequences of this war, but Pakistan was left high and dry to support these millions of people despite its own financial agonies," he added.
He deplored the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who had a budget of 37.4 million dollars in 2002, contributed only 4.4 million dollars today and that too included its administrative costs. He said that this behaviour of abandoning the support of Afghan refugees in Pakistan on the part of world powers was adding to the severity of the situation.
He informed the audience that 364,000 Afghans were repatriated till 2007, but during 2007-08 only 77,900 could be sent back to their homes, however many of those repatriated had returned to Pakistan owing to poor security and lack of opportunities in their own country.
He asked the world to shoulder some of the responsibility of the situation, which was created by them. He said that Pakistan was facing a serious situation and there were forces in the world and around our border, which seemingly looked interested in destabilising Pakistan.
"We, therefore, need to identify and isolate the criminal elements in the guise of refugees and we cannot afford to neglect their presence on our soil," he stressed, Speaking earlier in the inaugural session of the seminar, Minister of Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati said that presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan was the greatest hurdle for the peace in the region.
He asked for a clearer understanding of the situation and a policy based on the aspirations of Pakistani. During the seminar, it was underscored that Section 4 of Citizenship Act of 1951 provided that "Every person born in Pakistan after the commencement of this act shall he a citizen of Pakistan by birth" and Afghan citizens were not covered under any of the two exemptions mentioned.
It was, however, noted that Pakistani authorities and courts remained reluctant in naturalising them. It was suggested that the idea of total repatriation of Afghans was a wishful thinking and a comprehensive policy needed to be evolved, which combined integration, coexistence, naturalisation and repatriation.
It was stressed that final settlement of the issue of Afghan refugees was essentially linked with the security and economic situation in Pakistan and peace could not return to the region unless the foreign forces in the region withdrew after proper replacement and world powers helped Afghans in stabilising their own economy and building their own institutions.
The roundtable was addressed by Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad, Senator Raza Rabbani, Akram Zaki, Senator Abdul Malik Baloch, Senator Professor Ibrahim Khan, Khurram Dastgir Khan MNA, Shireen Mazari, Asad Durrani, Dilawar Khan, Rahimullah Yusufzai and Brigadier Saad (Retd).