ISLAMABAD - JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman said on Monday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has assured the release of all Pakistani prisoners in that country.
Talking to media here after his return from Afghanistan, Fazl said he managed to obtain more results in three days of his visit than state diplomacy did in 8 years.
"Now it is up to the government to avail benefit from the reconciliation process", the head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said while terming his visit ‘very successful’.
Fazl said his party supported talks between Afghan Taliban and the United States and it has always opposed presence of US troops in Afghanistan as use of power would not achieve anything and would make things worse.
“Taliban and we are on the same page as we do not want outside interference in our region,” he said, adding that he did not know precisely under what agenda the Afghan president had invited him to visit Kabul.
Fazl said Pakistan failed to find space in Afghanistan despite rendering sacrifices during ‘jihad’, but Indian lobby strengthened in Kabul after the fall of Taliban government. Fazlur Rehman said Afghanistan was a regional problem and Pakistan being its immediate neighbour was the most pertinent actor in any solution. He stressed that Pakistan should be given an active role in the resolution of Afghan problem.
“The present efforts do not appear to be deep-rooted. We must remember that Pakistan is an important player in the Afghan solution.” Fazl added that it was up to the stakeholders to define and devise Pakistan's role in the process, but it must be done.
The JUI-F chief said his party supported peace process that seeks to engage Taliban in talks and aims to end the long running conflict. He said the international community and the US should actively pursue internal reconciliation to bring political stability to the war-torn country so that after 2014 US withdrawal Afghanistan does not go back into civil war.
In response to a question, he said PM Nawaz Sharif was taken on board on his trip to Afghanistan and he had supported the trip. He said that his and US Secretary of State John Kerry’s presence in Afghanistan at the same time was mere coincidence and no meeting took place between him and Kerry.