ISLAMABAD: Experts on foreign affairs urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to deescalate tensions along the border and resolve their contentious issues through dialogue. Aziz Ahmad Khan, a seasoned diplomat, told Daily Times that the safety and security at the Pak- Afghan border was necessary and all countries needed to make their borders secure.
“At Torkhum crossing, some 15,000 to 20000 people daily cross the border and almost as many cross from the Chaman border. It is impossible to issue visas such a large number of people daily”, he added. He suggested that both countries should establish a mechanism and introduce transit permission for crossing the border. He was of the view that Pakistan and Afghanistan should show restraint and resolve all their issues amicably through dialogue. He said though Afghanistan did not officially declare Durand Line as international border, but their decision to have check post there meant they recognised it as the international border.
Ambassador Khan said that as a sovereign country, Afghanistan had the right to establish relations with India and if Afghanistan’s land was not used against Pakistan, then Pakistan need not have any objection to it. He referred from historical context and said that in the decades of 60’s and 70’s Afghanistan had good relations with India but when the Indo-Pak war in 1965 broke out, King Zahir Shah offered Pakistan to withdraw her forces from Pak Afghan border without fear. Similarly, in 1971 during the Indo-Pak war, Afghanistan offered the same thing to Pakistan. He said that there was a propaganda that 20 Indian Conciliates were working in Afghanistan, but as a matter of fact there were only four. He said Pakistan, as Afghanistan’s largest neighbouring country, show magnanimity and both countries needed to their resolve problems through dialogue.
Ahmed Rashid, Writer and analyst on Pak-Afghanistan said the Afghan government was facing the Taliban insurgency and could not afford hostility with Pakistan. He criticised Pakistan’s foreign policy and said that Pakistan’s relations with all its neighbours except China were hostile, calling the Pakistani foreign policy directionless, and urged Pakistan to formulate a sensible Pakistan should also set a coherent direction for its foreign policy.
