Pakistan Opposition Parties Against Fencing of Afghan Border
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 12:00 CDT
Text of report by Pakistani newspaper Dawn website on 14 September
Peshawar, 13 September: Political parties have opposed President Gen Pervez Musharraf's offer to fence the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to curb cross-border infiltration.
The Awami National Party (ANP), an opponent of the Durand Line agreement, suggests that both the governments should resolve issues through political means instead of fencing the border.
The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) termed the offer is tantamount to officially accepting the Afghan government that Islamabad facilitated cross-border terrorism in the region.
Secretary Information ANP Zahid Khan said the party never recognized Durand Line as international border between the two countries and would never support such a move.
"Durand Line divides Pukhtuns [Pashtuns] living on both side of the border and the party opposes the fencing proposal," the ANP leader said.
Talking to this correspondent, Mr Khan said that fencing Durand Line would generate new issues as the border had not been properly demarcated at various places, mostly in Mohmand Agency.
Security forces of both the countries exchanged fire when Islamabad started delineating the border near Mohmand Agency in July 2003 following which a tripartite commission comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and the USA was constituted to resolve the issue, he recalled.
"Fencing will not solve the problem of which we should find out a durable solution," he said.
PPP [Pakistan People's Party] Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said that parliament and the nation should make such decision, and not an individual.
Senator Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan of the JI said that Gen Musharraf "has become approver" by offering to erect fence along the border.
"The offer is unethical, unnatural and impossible. On the one hand, the government is talking about globalization and, on the other, it offers to demarcate the border by barbed wire," he said.
He said that the Afghan government was levelling baseless charges of infiltration from this side of the border and that Pakistan was facilitating Taleban and other elements.
Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia
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