ISLAMABAD: Top Pakistani, Afghan and NATO military commanders met yesterday for their first three-way talks since US forces infuriated Pakistan last month with an attack on a Pakistani border village. Cooperation between the military in Pakistan and Afghan and Western forces in Afghanistan is seen as vital as Islamist militant violence intensifies on both sides of the Afghan border.
But US impatience has grown over what it sees as Pakistan’s failure to eliminate the militant threat in remote sanctuaries on its side of the frontier.
Cross-border strikes by US forces, in particular a Sept. 3 raid by US commandos on a Pakistani village, have led to calls from opposition politicians for Pakistan to end its help for the US-led campaign against militancy.
The military commanders held a meeting of their so-called Tripartite Commission at the Pakistani military’s headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi to review security along the border, the Pakistani military said.
“While the forum expressed satisfaction at the current level of cooperation, it also discussed steps for better coordination and enhanced cooperation to avoid misunderstandings,” the Pakistani military said in a statement.
Pakistani Army commander Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, his Afghan counterpart Gen. Bismullah Khan and the commander of Afghanistan’s NATO force, Gen. David McKiernan, attended the talks.
Former prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif demanded negotiated settlement with tribesmen instead of the use of force. He was addressing the Parliamentary Party meeting of his party at Punjab House here Tuesday.
Giving details of Sharif’s address who had attended daylong in-camera briefing at the Parliament by Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shujaa Pasha on the situation in the controlled Federally Administered Tribal Areas, PML (N) spokesman Siddiquul Farooq told Arab News “our leader wants change in policy like the United Kingdom negotiated peace with Irish leaders. Since President Asif Ali Zardari has himself said that Musharraf’s policy was counterproductive so why to follow it.”
Farooq said we are supportive of the government in its efforts to bring peace in the country and curb terrorism. “But our approach is to find out a negotiated settlement with those elements who command suicide bombers and terrorists,” he added.
Quoting Sharif, Farooq said, “we need change of policy and not change of strategy.” If force is required as inevitable instrument we will no oppose it. We do not condone terrorism, he said.
