ISLAMABAD: (APP) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qayyum Thursday said that Pakistan is interested in strategic security in Afghanistan as he rejected the perception that Islamabad desired strategic depth in the neighbouring Islamic state.
"Our interest is strategic security and not strategic depth. The notion about strategic depth is not correct. Why we shall desire strategic depth in our neighbouring country," he said in a private news channel programme.
He also rejected the allegation of Pakistan's enemies that its establishment had any connections with terrorist networks.
"This is propaganda of our enemies, who want to malign our security agencies."
He said there could be challenges of different kinds, confronting the security institutions but they could not be held responsible for the chaos in the region.
The Senator said,"It is easy to fight a declared enemy but difficult to one hidden amongst us and targeting common people and public places. "There can be room for improvement in information gathering and countering terrorists but it does not mean that our forces or security institutions lack capability to fight them out.
Therefore, nobody should cast doubts that may malign our institutions."
He expressed the hope that security situation would further with border management and checking of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan.
"After the operation Zarb-e-Azb, the terrorists, who had crossed the border, try to infiltrate into Pakistan from soft entry points. But, we hope that proper border management would discourage this trend."