Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani has said that Pakistan and the US have a shared interest in a stable Afghanistan but the major challenge for both the countries is to find a common ground by taking into account political realities within Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.
He was delivering a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley. “Pakistan views the process of reconciliation in Afghanistan as a significant way to move forward. Afghanistan has its own history and its future could best be led and shaped by the people of Afghanistan,” he noted.
Haqqani said Pakistan believes America would benefit more by supporting the reconciliatory approach within the Afghan society including religiously conservative elements. Commenting on the current state of Pakistan-US relations, he said, that there are problems but they are not at a point, where abandonment is seen as the final answer by either side. He said the Pakistani government was committed to eliminate terrorism at a pace and time that suited the country’s social and political order, adding, “It cannot undertake military operations that can have blowback for us without achieving our ultimate objective of defeating terror.” The diplomat hoped that the two countries would be able to have a joint strategy to create a stable Afghanistan while accommodating Pakistan’s concerns.
Pakistan, US need to find common ground: Haqqani
