ISLAMABAD: President Ashraf Ghani has accepted invitation to visit Pakistan, Afghan Ambassador Dr Omar Zakhilwal told Daily Times on Thursday. “President Ghani indeed accepted the invitation after it was extended to him by Gen (Qamar Javed) Bajwa on behalf of the Government of Pakistan,” Zakhilwal, who was part of President Ghani’s high-level delegation in talks with the Pakistan’s army chief, said. When asked about the timing of the Afghan leader’s visit, he said “no timing of the visit has been finalized so far.” Speaking at an anti-corruption conference in Kabul on Thursday, President Ghani once again pushed for increased dialogue with Pakistan to secure peace and stability. “We must secure peace. I call, once again, on Pakistan to intensify the state-to-state dialogue with us to secure regional peace and security,” he said in comments posted by the presidential palace on official Twitter account. Mixed messages are coming from Afghanistan after General Bajwa visited Kabul last week at a time when the relationship is at its lowest ebb amid deep mistrust. Gen Bajwa renewed Pakistan’s long standing offer to impart training to the Afghan security personnel. However, Kabul is seemed to have declined the offer. Afghan Defense Ministry Spokesman Dawlat Waziri told reporters in Kabul after the visit of the Pakistan army chief that Afghanistan will not send army officers for training in Pakistan in view of what he called mutual mistrust.
“Pakistan should deal with us as a sovereign state. Pakistan should not consider us its 5th province. There is no chance to send our army cadets to Pakistan unless the environment of trust is developed. If this happens there will be no hurdle to send our army men for training to Pakistan as we are sending them to India, Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other countries,” Waziri told a news conference in Kabul this week.
Afghanistan had sent six Afghan National Army cadets to receive training at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad in February 2015 when relations were on track and President Ghani showed a goodwill gesture to Pakistan’s request. Ghani’s predecessor Hamid Karizai, the longest elected Afghan leader, had also refused to send army cadets to Pakistan for training. In spite of the tense relations, acceptance of Pakistan’s invitation by President Ghani is being seen a major development as it will be continuation of the high-level contacts and will enable leaders to address each other’s concerns.
Tense relationship between two neighbours has also affected bilateral visits and high-level talks as Afghanistan lowered the level of its participation in the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) summit in Islamabad in March this year.
The summit was attended by six presidents, one prime minister and two deputy prime ministers but Afghanistan was represented by only its ambassador in Islamabad.
Earlier in November last year, Afghanistan joined India to boycott the SAARC Summit in Islamabad that led to its postponement. The 19th SAARC Summit has not yet been held.
Despite opposition by certain quarters, Pakistan had participated in the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process in the Indian city of Amritsar in December last year where President Ghani refused to accept Pakistan’s 500 million dollar aid.
Pakistan’s several invitations to Afghan leaders, including to Afghan Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah, are pending since long. Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended invitation to Dr Abdullah last year which was repeated this year too. Nawaz Sharif had extended invitation to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai twice and he told a Pakistani media delegation in May that he will visit Pakistan after Eid-ul-Fitr but he has not yet visited Pakistan apparently due to uneasy relations.
The Afghan parliamentary delegation has postponed its visit to Pakistan twice. The delegation was scheduled to visit first in August and then in September this year but was postponed. However, In April this year Pakistan sent a 15-member parliamentary delegation headed by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to Afghanistan.
Published in Daily Times, October 6th 2017.
