Pakistan refused any hidden agenda

Pakistan refused any hidden agenda

In response to the NATO’s leaked report, Pakistan Wednesday rejected accusations that it was secretly assisting Taliban insurgents battling in Afghanistan.

A leaked-out NATO report charged that Pakistan’s security services, particularly the ISI, were seconding the Taliban.

However, the timing of the statement was not good for Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was in Kabul for the first time since taking office last year in a bid to melt frosty links between the two neighboring states.

Khar while speaking after holding talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai said they could disregard the report as a potentially strategic leak and this is old wine in an even older bottle.

She observed, “We have no hidden agenda in Afghanistan. These claims have been made many, many times. Pakistan stands behind any initiative that the Afghan government takes for peace. We must start engaging in the end of blame games.”

She said, “We consider any threat to Afghanistan’s independence and sovereignty as a threat to Pakistan’s existence. Pakistan and Afghanistan need to look forward to a relationship based on trust.”

Foreign Office spokesperson, Abdul Basit denied the allegations, playing down the credibility of the report. He observed, “This is frivolous, to put it mildly. We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle.”

He went on to say that Pakistan had suffered enormously because of the long conflict in Afghanistan. A stable and peaceful Afghanistan was in there own interest and they were very much cognizant of this,” he added.

Earlier, a report carried out by BBC and Times quoting secret report of NATO stated that the Taliban in Afghanistan were being directly assisted by Pakistani security services. It was derived from thousands of interrogations; claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.

It observed, “We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle. A stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in our own interests. We cannot indulge in any activity which takes us away from achieving that objective.”

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 1 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.