Pakistan’s terms impossible to meet: Faizi

KABUL will explore other ways of restoring peace and stability.

Aimal Faizi spurned unanimous Pakistani foreign ministry officials’ allegations that President Hamid Karzai himself was an obstacle to the peace process.

In an interview with a foreign news agency, Faizi argued Karzai had urged Pakistan several times to jointly fight against the twin scourge of terrorism and extremism — a common threat to the two countries.

He claimed a Pakistan had abandoned the peace effort and imposed impossible preconditions on any further discussions that would encourage the Taliban to renounce militancy.

The spokesman said Islamabad had asked Kabul to cut all ties to India, send Afghan army officers to Pakistan for training and sign a strategic partnership.

Pakistan’s demands were impossible to meet, according to Faizi, who hailed India as one of Afghanistan’s closest allies. Any Afghan officer who was trained in Pakistan would be viewed as a suspected spy when he returned home, he added.

If Kabul inked a strategic pact with Islamabad, he continued: “The Afghan public would stone us to death because they know that the suicide bombers that kill civilians and our armed forces come across from Pakistan.”

He told AFP: “Things were going well up to the trilateral (summit) in Britain, so we were hopeful, but soon it became clear that Pakistan had changed its position and the peace process was no longer its priority.”

Instability on the Pakistan side of the border was worse than in Afghanistan, he claimed, claiming the war-wrecked country was headed in the right.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister phoned President Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari to underline the need for co-operation and put an end to testy exchanges.

“We still believe the Pakistan can play a key role in negotiations between the Afghan government and militants, because the leaders of Taliban are in Pakistan,” he said. If Pakistan was not willing to cooperate, Afghanistan would find alternative ways, he concluded.

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