Afghan proposes bus diplomacy
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By Nadeem Malik
Islamabad: Embroiled in a diplomatic row, Afghanistan has proposed to start bus service with Pakistan, from Kandahar to Quetta and Jalalabad to Peshawar, besides joint efforts to combat terrorism, says its Transport Minister Inayatullah Qasmi.
Qasmi received last batch of 23 buses from Islamabad here Wednesday out of the 100 buses promised by Islamabad, besides 200 trucks and 45 ambulances. “There is a specific purpose of my visit. We want to facilitate travel of passengers and traders between the two countries,” Qasmi said. He said the Afghan government has proposed opening up of the bus routes and improvement in the transport linkages between the two sides.
The mistrust and diplomatic controversy between the two governments is heating up in recent weeks over allegations by Kabul that Islamabad is still hosting remnants of Taliban. Pakistan vehemently denied such allegations, but the Northern Alliance dominated government in Kabul continues to repeat the same.
“Facts are facts,” Afghan Transport Minister said, while responding to questions regarding such allegations. Asked to explain further, he said: “I do not want to conjecture, but we have caught some Pakistanis recently.” Pakistan played the self-less host to over three million Afghan refugees for 25-years, when Soviets invaded Afghanistan with a hammer and a sickle.
“Unfortunately, after the defeat of the Soviet forces, the fruit of the struggle was not delivered to the hands of our people. But our people faced an even more dangerous intervention. The Soviet Union was a clear occupier. But after the defeat of the Soviet forces, a more dangerous occupation came from another neighbor,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a youth conference in Kabul on June 20. He urged them to understand the historic role played by Afghan neighbours in its destruction. Karzai was one of the many who fled to Pakistan after Soviet invasion, before he moved to India.
Karzai's chief spokesman, Jawed Ludin, was quoted in the media that militants involved in the current battle were trained at camps in Pakistan. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal also claimed, after the bloodiest air strikes in the mountains close to where the provinces of Kandahar, Oruzgan, and Zabol meet, that most killed by air strikes were trying to flee toward Pakistan or Taliban strongholds further north in Oruzgan Province. He said that Urdu-speaking Pakistani militants are among the 16 Taliban fighters captured in the area.
Both Ludin and Mashal link the recent spate of terrorists’ attacks to the September parliamentary elections, where majority Pushtoon population of Afghanistan is not being truly represented. The controversial US diplomat, former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was also among the people in Kabul who cast doubts about Islamabad.
Pakistan has deployed some 70,000 troops on the western borders with Afghanistan to fight remnants of Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and more 250 Pakistani embraced martyredom in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan also helped arrest almost 700 Al-Qaeda suspects to the United States, including the most wanted names, like Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Abu Zubaida etc.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf called Karzai to end the controversy, but it appears that the present Afghan regime is obsessed with the situation. No Afghan official has any answer to the question that where is Osama or Omar, or do you have any proof to support such allegations or it is just the outcome of some dramatic imagination. Afghan Transport Minister was no exception.
“We have historic ties with Pakistan. Pakistan embraced millions of Afghan refugees after the Soviet invasion. Afghan people are thankful to Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistan has contributed $100 million for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, including the construction of Torkham-Jalalabad road. Qasmi said Pakistani exports to Afghanistan totaled one billion dollar in 2004. He said Pakistani exports were just $30 million to Kabul during the Taliban era. He observed that it was a manifestation of close bilateral economic ties between the two countries.
Pakistan has instituted several measures to facilitate trade with Afghanistan. Even the export of edible items, which are short in quantity within Pakistan, are being allowed, to help provide enough food for 25 million poverty-stricken Afghans.
“President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz have time and again emphasized on the Pakistan’s commitment to the rehabilitation of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Salman Advisor to Prime Minister Aziz. He said Pakistan is also executing various health and education sector projects in Afghanistan, which would be completed well in time, with highest quality standards.
ENDS.
