Chairing a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Farooq Naek on Thursday advised the government to revisit its Afghanistan policy, noting Islamabad was not benefiting from its support of the neighboring nation.
Expressing serious reservations over an attempted assassination of the Pakistani head of mission to Afghanistan earlier this month—which the committee was briefed on—Naek said it was “unfortunate” that the Afghan government was unable to prevent guns from targeting Pakistan.
“We act as spokesperson of Afghanistan in the world against the wishes of the West, but on the contrary, the Afghan government often opposes Pakistan and raises guns against us which is very unfortunate,” he said, emphasizing that Pakistan could not continue with its current policy vis a vis Afghanistan. He also noted there were more skirmishes on the Afghan border than the Indian border.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed gave a briefing stressing the importance to Pakistan of peace and stability in Afghanistan. Noting that any insurgency in the neighboring state had a direct impact here, he said around 100 bullet rounds were fired from a distance of 100 meters in the attack on the Pakistani diplomat. “Thankfully, it was not a physical intrusion, and miraculously, the [diplomat] remained safe,” he said, adding that Afghan authorities had arrested one suspect and were proceeding with an investigation into the incident.
Another cross-border incident
The Senate committee met the same day that Afghan troops once again opened fire on civilians in Chaman from across the Pak-Afghan border, killing 1 person and injuring 12 others. While the Afghan defense ministry accused Pakistan of initiating the skirmish, government officials in Pakistan maintained that the assault had originated from Afghanistan and had been retaliated by Pakistani troops.
Condemning the incident, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove sought a report from the deputy commissioner and warned that Army knew how to defend the country’s borders. “We believe in pursuing a friendly policy with neighboring countries. Do not think of our desire for peace as a weakness,” he stressed.
The latest incident occurred less than a week after seven people were killed and 16 others injured—also in Chaman—due to cross-border firing from Afghanistan. It had seen a brief closure of the Chaman border crossing, but it was later reopened with Defense Minister Khawaja Asif telling journalists the interim government in Afghanistan had apologized for the incident and vowed to not allow it to be repeated.