I support the formation of a steering committee comprising of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and USA as proposed by PM of Pakistan during SCO summit in China. But no multilateral platform concerning Afghanistan will succeed unless it also involved Iran and Russia as major stakeholders in the region. Since PM proposed this platform during SCO summit, it is important to include these two countries because Russia is the one who proposed Pakistan to become full member and Iran has an observer status. Iran also is a neighbour of Afghanistan and cannot be ignored for sustainable regional security.
I have been suggesting for years that Afghan-owned and Afghan-led policy adopted by Pakistan is not workable because Afghanistan is a regional issue. Creation of the proposed steering committee is a step in the right direction. It is important to form a national consensus on matters of foreign relations. To create this consensus on the proposed steering committee it is important that its terms of reference are presented to the sub-committees of NA and Senate for comments and feedback.
ABDUL QUAYYUM KHAN KUNDI
Islamabad
