With the East West Institute (EWI) all set to arrange a follow-up meeting of all stakeholders in March this year to revive its initiative on Afghan peace process, the organisation has been advised to focus its efforts for reactivation of contributions by Pakistan, which was a key player in the Afghan peace process, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
A source in the PPP-S said this advice was passed on to Ambassador Guenter Overfeld, East West Institute vice president and director of regional security and preventive diplomacy, by PPP-S Chairman Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Wednesday. Guenter is an ambassador-at-large on loan to EWI from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who called on Sherpao quietly. He would proceed to Afghanistan following his visit to Pakistan.
Sherpao told the visiting dignitary that Doha Peace Initiative would not help resolve the complex situation in Afghanistan and rather there was a dire need to speed up joint efforts to normalise relations between all the three stakeholders – Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US.
Calling upon the US and Afghanistan governments to speed up efforts to normalise their relations with Pakistan which was a key factor in Afghan peace process, Sherpao added that the strained trilateral relations had badly dented the peace efforts in Afghanistan.
Sherpao told the ambassador that the US attack on Pakistani checkposts had a very negative impact not only on bilateral relations but also on the peace efforts in Afghanistan.
He said the sour relations between Pakistan and the US were detrimental for peace efforts while the same had also damaged Pak-Afghan ties.
“While the normalisation process is on between Pakistan and the US, proactive efforts are needed to revive ties between Islamabad and Kabul which also suffered a major dent in wake of assassination of Afghan High Peace Council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani and ISAF attack on Pakistani posts. The future visit of foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar would be of paramount importance in this regard,” he added.
Calling upon Afghan President Hamid Karzai to nominate a new chief for the Afghan High Peace Council after the assassination of Prof Rabbani, Sherpao said the martyrdom of Rabbani was an equally great loss for Pakistan, there was an urgent need for nominating successor to Rabbani.
“There is a need for removal of distrust between both friendly nations and trust should replace distrust. Bilateral forums including exchange of parliamentary, media and youth delegations is the way forward,” he added.
He said there was an urgent need to revive relations at various forums and levels between both the neighbouring countries as it would help remove misunderstandings.