ISLAMABAD – National Security Adviser Lt General (R) Nasser Khan JanjuaThursday said Pakistan and India were nuclear powers and both needed toengage each other, resolve disputes and move forward as their tenserelationship was having an effect on the whole region.
Speaking at a seminar on “peace a dividend for development and stability inAfghanistan”, he said relations between India and Pakistan were not good.“Both countries are not talking to each other and the relations betweenthem are tense.” The two countries had to think whether they wanted toremain enemies forever, he added.He said Pakistan would continue to play its role for peace in the regionand would work along with Afghanistan under their cooperative framework toachieve regional stability.
“Peace in Afghanistan is necessary for stability in the region. Pakistandirely wanted peace and progress in Afghanistan.”He recalled that Afghanistan was abandoned by world powers after thewithdrawal of USSR which created a vacuum. Afterwards, the attack on UnitedStates on 9/11 created chaos and everyone supported United States in thewar on Afghanistan and the US dismantled Taliban regime by using excessiveforce.
“We are now trying that Taliban join the political process but at that timeafter 9/11 they were not allowed to take part in the elections.”The adviser said 35,000 Pakistani citizens and 22,000 soldiers of all ranksand seniority were martyred because of militancy in Pakistan, which had tobear financial cost of billions of dollars.He told that it was very difficult to manage the Pak-Afghan border becauseof the treacherous terrain. Hundreds of routes existed in FATA areas andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa from where thousands of people daily cross borders.He opined that Pakistan and Afghanistan were ideally located, had hugeeconomic potential and by developing cooperative relationship could have agreat common future.
He welcomed the Afghan leadership’s desire seeking peace through dialoguesaying Pakistan would facilitate the noble initiative as peace inAfghanistan was essential for peace in Pakistan, which had supportedefforts for political reconciliation. “Pakistan will continue to supportpeace efforts in Afghanistan.”
The adviser said Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan needed to become massivetrade corridors, adding Pakistan could become an industrial hub and couldconnect consumer markets from Asia to Europe.Ambassador (R) Rustam Shah Mohmand said it was not true that there wascomplete disorder and catastrophe in Afghanistan, adding new powerstations, hospitals, universities and infrastructure projects were built inAfghanistan, hundreds of thousands of children were going to schools andagriculture sector growth was phenomenal.Afghanistan had tremendous reserves of natural resources like oil, gas,gold, copper, iron ore, lithium and other precious metals, he added.
He said however, this was one side of the picture, and the downside wasfrightening in scale. Afghanistan which had revenues of $ two billion wasspending $4.5 billion every year on its police and security forces.
The unemployment was at an alarming rate of 40 percent, 39 percent of thepopulation was living below the poverty line and the opium production hadgone up to 6,000 tonnes increasing heroin addicts in the region by millionsdestroying social fabric of societies, he added. – APP