Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Monday said the Pakistan-Afghan Peace Jirga (council meeting of tribal elders) will be a turning point in relations between the two countries.
Aziz said this while talking to Pakistani Minister for Interior and Chairman of the Pakistani jirga commission, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who called on him here, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.
Aiming at stopping violence and combating terrorism in tribal areas straddling on the Pakistani-Afghan border, the grand joint jirga, held in Afghan capital city of Kabul on August 8-12, was joined by a total of nearly 700 tribal elders and officials, 350 from each country.
The prime minister said Pakistan is committed to a strong, stable and peaceful Afghanistan because that will serve as anchor of peace and stability in the region and Pakistan will support all efforts to achieve this objective.
He said increased interaction with our counterparts in Afghanistan would help better understanding of issues on both sides.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that the holding of the joint jirga was "a good beginning" and would help ensure peace and security in Afghanistan and the bordering areas of Pakistan.
Talking to mediamen after returning from Kabul, Musharraf on Sunday expressed the confidence that the 50-member committee proposed by the joint jirga would engage opposing forces in Afghanistan in a political dialogue to push the peace process forward.
The joint jirga emerged as a followup to an agreement reached by Musharraf and Karzai at a meeting hosted by U.S. President George W Bush at the White House in September 2006.
Authorities in the two countries had agreed to hold joint Jirga including tribal elders from the border areas to eliminate insurgency in their tribal areas along the border and curtail illegal cross-border movements.
Since joining the Washington-led war on terror in 2001, Pakistan has sent nearly 90,000 troops to hunt remnants of al- Qaida and Taliban, who sneaked into Pakistani tribal areas to seek refuge following Afghan Taliban fall.
But Afghanistan continued to accuse Pakistan of harboring Taliban and al-Qaida members and lending a blind eye to illegal movement of militants. Pakistan categorically rejected the claims.
Saying it has done the best to stop fighters' cross-border movement, Pakistan calls for increased efforts of concerned parts in stopping violence along the 2500-kilometer-long Pakistani- Afghan border.
Pakistani officials said militancy and terrorism problems could not be resolved through only military activities, suggesting that a holistic strategy comprising political dialogue, economic and social improvement initiatives should be considered.
Source: Xinhua
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