PESHAWAR - Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan called on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Presidential Palace in Kabul Friday and discussed overall regional situation with him, says a press release issued here from Bacha Khan Markaz. The ANP chief, who is currently in Kabul in connection with International Peace Conference, met with the Afghan president after the conclusion of the moot.
Talking to the Afghan president, Asfandyar said that Pakhtuns on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border were the victims of the ongoing war against terrorism.
He stressed the need for resumption of negotiations between parties to the Afghan conflict, and said that these negotiations would be successful only if were acceptable to the whole Afghan nation and spearheaded by the government of Afghanistan itself. Reiterating that war was no solution to any problem, Asfandyar stressed the need for searching a sustainable solution to the problems confronting Afghanistan through reconciliation.
Presenting proposals for the resolution of Afghan issue, he said that United States, China and Russia should play the role of facilitators and during the process, Pakistan and Afghanistan should sit together to find out solution to these problems.
He also urged the Afghan government to play its part in the elimination of misunderstandings with Pakistan.
Similarly, he said that Pakistan should also begin cargo train service with Afghanistan to remove doubts and misunderstandings and allow free traveling to the people of both the countries so that their broken links could be restored.
Speaking on the occasion, the Afghan president said that the ongoing war in the region was affecting people living on both sides of the Durand Line, and now there was a need for mass and government level efforts to bring that war to an end.
The president opined that during his visit to Pakistan, he had made it clear to the Pakistani leadership that if it wanted the issues of poverty, energy crisis and others sorted out, then it would have to extend friendly hand to Afghanistan and would have to fulfill commitments made in this connection. Ghani said that the literary and scholarly works by writers, scholars and researchers on eastern side of the Durrand Line would be published in Afghanistan, so that the people of Afghanistan could also benefit from them.
In order to lessen the prevailing hardships, he stressed the need for joint efforts.