Pakistan on Thursday termed the recent visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai successful and assured Kabul of continued help and assistance for the success of the reconciliation and peace process.
Foreign Office Spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry in his weekly press briefing at Foreign Office said, “Pakistan has taken a principled stance of fully supporting the Afghan peace and reconciliation process and these sentiments were assured to President Karzai by Pakistani leadership during his recent visit to Pakistan.”
The spokesman said it was in that context, “Pakistan also supported the Doha talks.”
He said Pakistan believed that the reconciliation process must be led by Afghans themselves and it should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process.
“We will facilitate in whatever manner we can and have a genuine interest in seeing lasting peace in Afghanistan since peace in Afghanistan will usher peace in our region,” said the spokesman.
The spokesman said Pakistan had expressed concern over the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“Pakistan as non-permanent member of Security Council of the United Nations is of the view that sovereignty and integrity of Syria must be respected and there should be no foreign interference in Syria.”
He said the United Nations Investigating team was in Syria to investigate the use of chemical weapons and the international community should wait for the outcome of this investigation before taking any action against Syria.
The spokesman said the Adviser on National Security Sartaj Aziz would take the parliament into confidence over the situation in Syria and the Line of Control.
To a question, he said Pakistan and India were engaged in Track-II diplomacy to move forward for resolution of the outstanding issues.
Referring to the approval by the federal cabinet the signing of Council of Europe Convention on the transfer of sentenced persons to facilitate the repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the spokesman said the government was making sincere efforts to transfer Dr Siddiqui, to complete her sentence in Pakistan.
He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior jointly pursued the signing of Council of Europe Convention with United States and other countries.
To a question, the spokesman said the US had not yet approached Pakistan for the transfer of Dr Shakeel Afridi.
The spokesman said Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz was likely to represent Pakistan in the forthcoming meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
He said the SCO was an important organisation playing useful role in the region.
Answering a query, the spokesman said the visit of the members of Judicial Commission to India regarding investigating in Mumbai attack was on the record but the dates had not been finalised.
The spokesman said the first-ever strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the Russian federation was going on in Moscow and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani was leading Pakistan’s delegation.
He said the two sides were exchanging views on political, economic and defence areas besides discussing the regional and international issues.
On the issue of death penalty in Pakistan, the spokesman said Pakistan had been maintaining moratorium on the issue of death penalty for last some years and it would continue.