The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan are determined to press ahead with peace efforts after a meeting in Turkey, the country’s president said Wednesday, despite an attack that wounded the Afghan intelligence chief.
President Abdullah Gul described the bombing, which Afghanistan believes was planned in Pakistan, as an attempt to derail dialogue between the two countries.
At the end of a meeting aimed at easing tensions and increasing cooperation between the governments in Kabul and Islamabad, Gul said both had ”renewed trust and are determined to work together.” He was flanked by counterparts Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.
Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid was seriously injured last week when a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy detonated an explosive, dealing a setback to fragile efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.
Karzai has said the attack was planned in Pakistan, but stopped short of directly holding Islamabad responsible for the explosion that was claimed by the Taliban.
Karzai said Wednesday the two leaders had ”very good conversations” about the assassination attempt, but refused to go into details. Afghan officials said Karzai would present evidence to Zardari during their meetings about the attack.
”Hopefully the fight against extremism and terrorism will take itself to a conclusion where the populations of the two countries are not threatened by these attacks,” Karzai said.
”The environment of dialogue is better than it has been,” Karzai said. ”At the same time, we are seeing unfortunate incidents of terrorism both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
For his part, Zardari distanced his country from the attack on Khalid.
”They (terrorists) don’t want us, the governments, to get together and to be able to lead the nations to peace,” he said. ”It is in the interest of Pakistan that Afghanistan prospers,” he said. ”It is in my interest that peace returns to Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting said a ”joint working group” would address the attempt on the intelligence chief’s life.
Meanwhile, the governments of Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote and facilitate trade and economic cooperation among the three countries.
The MoU, signed during the 7th trilateral Summit of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey in Ankara, provides for the establishment of Trilateral Trade Council, which will work for promotion of foreign investment, enhancing and diversifying commercial ties and exploring possibilities for cooperation in services sectors among the three countries.
The MoU will also facilitate exchange of information particularly concerning their respective legislation on trade and economic activities.
The “Trilateral Trade Council” will provide a useful platform to discuss advancement of regional, bilateral and trilateral cooperation besides sharing practices on the issues of commercial and economic relations, trade-policy matters and trade facilitation among the three countries.
The council meeting will be convened annually or when the parties deem it necessary more often, alternately in Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Under the framework of “Trilateral Trade Council”, the three governments have agreed to provide the necessary facilities to the businessmen of the three countries to increase trade and to resolve the issues that may emerge in this regard.
The entrepreneur and organisations of the three countries would also be encouraged to participate in exhibitions, fairs and other promotional activities as well as promote the exchange of trade delegations and business representatives.
The MoU has been initially signed for a period of one year and will be renewed automatically for successive periods of one year as per consent of the three countries.
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The problem is not limited to lawmakers, he added. “It’s the entire prosperous class of Pakistan. Their lifestyles are totally out of sync with their declared income.”
Another difficulty is that, even when breaches of the tax laws are discovered, the rich and politically connected are rarely prosecuted. “Law enforcement is in general very weak,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.
“And if you happen to be an influential and powerful person like a politician, then it is even weaker,” he said.