Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Afghanistan Wants Durable Peace with Pakistan: Ghani

Afghanistan Wants Durable Peace with Pakistan: Ghani

KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday a roadmap to peace had been charted out as Afghanistan desired durable peace with Pakistan.
The president said this during a consultative meeting with university teachers and students, who called on him at the Presidential Palace.
Prof. Esmatullah Usmani and Prof. Javed Siddique spoke on behalf of the teachers and students. They expressed their condolences over the recent killing of innocent people in terrorist attacks.
The praised the president’s initiative of consultations with different groups of society and said unity and education could steer the country out of crisis.
The supported the government’s foreign policy, fight against corruption, promotion of education, implementation of infrastructure projects, water management and administration of transit routes.
Representing Kabul University students, Shahnaz Hussaini Tanin and Qudratullah hailed Ghani’s initiative to take youth into confidence on major issues.
The ongoing situation was not in the interest of anyone and youth should understand the current circumstances before taking any decision, they said.
They stressed the development of a proper system that would continue despite a change of government.
Ghani said: “Your viewpoints have provided me the assurance that we were moving in the right direction.” Afghanistan, he hoped, would realize its goals despite challenges and nefarious designs of the enemy.
The aim of the recent attacks was to derail the Kabul Process conference, an event that represented the national will. It was led and managed independently by Afghans for the first time in 16 years.
At the Kabul Process conference, all participants condemned the attacks from Afghanistan’s enemies and appreciated the courage and patience of the Afghan security forces and people, he said.
“Our enemies want to damage our national solidarity, society and stability in the country, but we should not let them achieve their goals,” the president said.
He added the objective behind the Kabul conference and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit was to forge regional and international consensus on prosperity.
The current war was aimed to weaken the morale of Afghans, fuel disunity and destroy constitutionalism, and disappoint the rising generation and women, the president concluded.
He said the war was directly targeting the Afghan nation, whose enemy had been defeated by the security forces.
About the peace process, he said: “A roadmap has been prepared. Whenever we reach an agreement, its implementation will be closely supervised by international organisations. We want peace with Pakistan with honour and dignity.”
Afghanistan, an inseparable part of Central Asia, no longer relied on a specific country for transit trade and it would be connected with Europe in the next five days, the president said.
He announced Afghanistan would sign a commercial and transit agreement with Uzbekistan within two months, as its relations with Central Asian countries had considerably grown.
Ghani stressed the need for a national debate and consensus, saying his meetings with different groups of society were the beginning of discussions across the country.
He said a national debate on Kabul security would help reach a positive result as people’s views on the issue were important.
However, he stressed a clear distinction between positive and negative freedoms. The current transition might face with some resistance, Ghani said.
“We want to unite the nation so as to overcome all problems. Foreign interference would not be allowed to disturb our focus,” he added.
“I don’t belong to any political party, tribe, region or language. I am a Muslim and an Afghan. I am committed to equality between men and women and the presidential palace is a place of connection not a place of segregation,” he remarked.
“We are in a four-phase governance process: nation-building, market and economy and peace and stability. There is need for strong consensus on a strong government.
“We need professional and powerful security forces for peace and stability; we have gone through four phases of security, political, economic and law-enforcement transitions,” Ghani noted.
He hinted a High Human Resources Council would be created in the next few weeks to hold comprehensive discussions on universities and schools and curriculum for them would be fundamentally changed.
The system of education had been changed, Ghani observed, asking university lecturers and academic institutes to share their suggestions with the High Human Resource Council.
The president said the Indian prime minister had promised cooperation with Afghanistan on conducting the Wolesi Jirga and presidential elections, which would be held on schedule.(Pajhwok)