Islamabad - Pakistan has intensified its multi-channel efforts to engage Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to put into practice his commitments with Pakistan for a meaningful cooperation to fight terrorism.
For this purpose, Pakistan has requested Islamabad-based ambassadors of various friendly countries including China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Iran to use their good offices in persuading the Afghan president to visit Pakistan as per his commitment to undertake the crucial trip at the earliest.
The development comes after the Afghan president made some contentious remarks against Pakistan during his recent visit to India that had raised concerns in Pakistan forcing it to utilize all diplomatic channels to protect the roadmap Islamabad and Kabul had agreed to work together in October.
In his recent statement, Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to peace in Afghanistan and its readiness to help and cooperate with Afghanistan to restore peace in the war-torn country.
Pakistan offered a set of proposals to the Afghan leadership last month during a high-level official visit of a Pakistani delegation headed by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to Kabul where he had interactions with civil and military leaders.
One of the important achievements of the visit was that the Afghan president had candidly accepted the official invitation to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience so that both sides could expedite the process for enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields.
Since this important visit, analysts believe that Islamabad and Kabul have been successful in breaking the ice of mistrust and suspicion.
Prior to this visit, relations between Islamabad and Kabul were marred by mistrust and suspicion, with both sides routinely accusing each other’s security institutions of backing fugitive anti-state militants to plot terrorist attacks against the other.
Pakistan had made clear to the Afghan leadership that it had destroyed terrorist hideouts on its side of the Pak-Afghan border and was actively busy in managing its border to stop cross-border movement along the Pak-Afghan border.
Apart from several key proposals, Pakistan had made an offer to the Afghan leadership in fighting terrorism especially in tackling the growing footprint of the Islamic State.
On the other hand, following the announcement of US President Donald Trump’s policy for South Asia, Pakistan has been cooperating with the United States in intelligence sharing and hopes to further cement the cooperation between the two countries against the common enemy, the terrorism.
Pakistan has also been forthcoming to engage the United States in fighting terrorism on the basis of mutual interest.