WASHINGTON: The Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has proposed a mutually acceptable verification mechanism, arrived at with international assistance between Pakistan and Afghanistan to investigate allegations of cross border intrusion of militants.
While addressing scholars and researchers at the Woodrow Wilson think tank in Washington on Tuesday, he said this was a ‘credible and doable way forward’ to address concerns about militants crossing over borders with impunity that had bedeviled peace in the region.
“Extremists and militants of any persuasion who seek to advance their security and foreign policy agendas are a threat to peace and security and must not be allowed a foothold anywhere”, he said.
Bilawal said the Haqqani network must be dismantled and disarmed but this can be done by concerted and coordinated action both by Pakistan and Afghanistan based on a credible and verifiable mechanism and not by resorting to blame game.
The interactive session at the Woodrow Wilson institute was participated by former ambassadors, Ex-State Department officers and researchers and scholars of peace and security issues in the south Asian region.
The PPP Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar and the Former Senator Akbar Khawaja were also present.
The Chairman PPP pleaded for burying the bitter past and looking forward to overcome the challenges that threatened their very existence today.
Besides Pak-US relations, the PPP Chairman also spoke about the fragile civil military relations, the state democracy and human rights, mysterious disappearances, forthcoming general elections in the country, reforms in tribal areas, need for economic revival, and fighting militancy in a holistic manner.
Bilawal Bhutto said the use of religion as a weapon of war in Afghanistan and turning a blind eye to the emergence of non-state actors in the name of religion was a grave strategic mistake. He said containing the consequences of disastrous policies of the past called for political will and sincerity of purpose which could come only by making a clean admission of the blunders made.
Talking about the US President Donald Trump’s tweets, Bilawal said those generated heat instead of throwing light on serious foreign policy issues.
Strong arm tactics and coercive diplomacy gravely undermined rationality in public discourse, he said adding that serious foreign policy issues could not be addressed through tweets.
Bilawal also reminded the audience that the United States was no less responsible in creating the monster of militants and Jihadis. I have seen photographs of former Jihadi commanders feted by President Reagan in the White House where they were greeted by the US president as “moral equivalents if George Washington”, he said.
The Chairman PPP further said today the so called moral equivalents of George Washington had held his Country and the region hostage.
Bilawal meets Congressman Brad Sherman
The Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also held a 45-minute long meeting with the Congressman Brad Sherman of Democratic Party in Capitol Hill.
The PPP Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said Pak-US relations, fight against extremism and the human rights issues figured during the meeting.
Brad Sherman is a Democrat Congressman elected to the House from California. He is on House Committees of Financial Services and Foreign Affairs, and is also a ranking member of Asia Sub-Committee.
