Pakistan’s Zardari postpones Kabul trip
KABUL, (AFP)
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday was forced to postpone
a trip to Afghanistan for talks with his counterpart Hamid Karzai on the
anti-terror fight due to bad weather, officials said. The two leaders
were due to discuss how to combat a resurgent Taliban militia that is
staging deadly attacks on both sides of the rugged common border, but
Zardari was unable to leave Pakistan.
The Pakistani leader — who was to have made his first official visit
to Afghanistan since taking office three months ago — said he hoped to
reschedule the trip “at an appropriate future time,” Karzai’s office
said in a statement.In Islamabad, a foreign ministry official confirmed
the postponement of the trip, without specifying whether a new date had
been set.
Islamabad and Kabul, allies in the US-led “war on terror”, are
struggling to rein in Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who have been holed
up in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas since the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan in late 2001.“Pakistan attaches a high priority to forging
close, friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan,” the
Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.
Karzai has accused Islamabad in the past of not doing enough to
prevent cross-border operations by Taliban insurgents against Afghan and
international troops.
Taliban militants are also stepping up their operations in Pakistan,
staging spectacular attacks on NATO supply depots in the northwest near
the border, torching trucks and containers destined for foreign forces
in Afghanistan.
At a meeting in Turkey earlier this month, the two leaders pledged to
work out a common strategy to fight Islamic extremists operating in the
border areas.
Pakistan’s mountainous northwest tribal belt became a safe haven for
hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the toppling of the
hardline Taliban regime by US-led forces in the wake of the September 11
attacks.
But Islamabad rejects claims that it is not doing enough to curb
militant activity.
The Pakistani army is engaged in a major military campaign against
militants in the Bajaur tribal agency.Ahead of the talks, Zardari told
tribal lawmakers that Islamabad had “no alternative but to fight
militancy in the country,” according to a government statement.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who arrived in Kabul
on Thursday to prepare for Zardari’s visit, had predicted the trip would
mark a fresh start in the sometimes contentious relations between the
two neighbours.
“I foresee pleasant changes in the region in future,” Qureshi told
Pakistani media.Karzai visited Pakistan in September to attend Zardari’s
swearing-in ceremony.
The two also met in September on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly in New York, and in Istanbul earlier this month. |