KABUL (Pajhwok): Lawmakers on Monday asked President Ashraf Ghani to seriously mention Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan’s affairs during the two-day Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process conference in Islamabad.
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the members of the Hearth of Asia process.
While Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Findland, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Poland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA are supporting the process and the UN, the EU, NATO, ECO, OIC, SARAC and some other regional and international organizations are associated with it.
At the head of a high-level delegation, President Ashraf Ghani will visit Pakistan on Tuesday to co-inaugurate the international conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad.
Ghani confirmed on Monday that he would also travel to Pakistan for The Heart of Asia conference in Islamabad, in a sign of fresh efforts to reduce tension between the two neighbouring countries.
“This is not Pakistan's conference, this is Afghanistan's conference,” Ghani, who had not previously confirmed his attendance, told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.
Speaking in Kabul on Sunday, newly appointed US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson, urged the two countries to work together.
The Indian foreign minister and the Afghan president will be travelling to Pakistan to attend The Heart of Asia conference in Islamabad, previously held in Turkey, Kazakhstan and China.
The two-day event is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who met in Paris last week, will jointly open the important meeting.
Taking part in a debate on the conference at the Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament, lawmaker from northern Jawzjan province, Abdul Sattar Darzabi told Monday’s session that the Afghan president should seriously speak about Pakistan’s interferences and the intelligence war the country had waged in Afghanistan.
He said Pakistan had never been an honest ally of Afghanistan and should never be given another chance to sacrifice the Afghans for its strategic goals.
Semin Barakzai, a lawmaker from western Herat province, asked President Ghani to disclose all information he had about Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan at the Islamabad conference.
“As Pakistan is not honest with Afghanistan, the Afghan government should not be cheated in the name of peace process that allows insurgents to flee back to Pakistan in winter and return in spring for disruptive activities.”
Meanwhile, MP from northern Balkh province Maulvi Rahmani criticised Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz over his remarks that the Haqqani network should assume Taliban leadership.
He believed if the Haqqanis ascended the throne, the Taliban would come under direct control of the Pakistani intelligence agency and it was a plot against Afghanistan.
First deputy speaker Haji Zahir Qadir said the Afghan delegation should implicitly tell participants of the Islamabad conference that the Afghans would never be misled by fake promises of Pakistan.
He said Afghanistan should not let Pakistan implement its dangerous ideas in the name of peace process in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan people would not trust Pakistan until the participanting countries guarantee that Pakistan would not cheat again and the Afghan government would not believe in seasonal peace talks in Pakistan, which start in winter and stop in spring --the fighting season of Taliban.”
myn/ma
