Afghan Paper Discusses Visit of Pakistani PM

Text of editorial in Dari entitled: “With what message will Shaukat Aziz come to Kabul?” by Afghan state-run newspaper Anis on 4 Jan

Shaukat Aziz, the prime minister of Pakistan, arrives in Kabul today on a one day trip.

The Pakistani prime minister’s visit is taking place following the visit of the Pakistani foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, to Kabul on 9 December 2006. It is said that Shaukat Aziz will meet President Hamed Karzai and other government officials.

Experts of regional politics say that Shaukat Aziz’ one-day visit to Kabul is to explain the mechanism for convening the regional peace jerga by taking into consideration the points mentioned by the Pakistani foreign minister in his previous visit to Kabul.

Another issue on which political analysts in the region comment is that Shaukat Aziz’s Kabul visit has to do with the Pakistani government’s decision to mine or install barbed wire fences along the Durand Line [border between Pakistan and Afghanistan]. The government and the people of Afghanistan have seriously rejected this.

Over the last two years, the Pakistani rulers consistently asserted that to prevent terrorists and armed militias from entering Afghanistan, the border should be closed either by installing barbed wire fences or by mining. For this purpose, Pakistan strived hard to fuel the unrest in Afghanistan and financed and equipped fugitive terrorists. But the war-weary people of Afghanistan have come to understand what the idea behind Pakistan’s plan to mine the border is.

Pakistan does not want peace and security in Afghanistan. It only pursues its own strategic goals. A number of people believe that Pakistan pursues a policy of double standards with regard to the issue of Afghanistan. The Pakistani foreign minister, in his recent visit to Kabul, discovered that Afghanistan was serious in its plan to hold the regional peace jerga. It is important for Afghanistan to wisely step into this jerga and there is a possibility that the ISI personnel may participate in the jerga by pretending to be tribal people from the other side of the border and raise the issue of the Durand Line [border dispute] as they raised the issue of installing barbed wire fences in order to say that the problem of insecurity lies in Afghanistan.

Despite the Pakistani officials’ past activities, the Islamic government of Afghanistan and its people welcome Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and are optimistic that the Pakistani government will take serious and fair decisions and convey a message that not only guarantees stability, peace and security in Afghanistan but also strengthens peace and security in Pakistan.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.