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vol II no 137 32 Pages Islamabad — Peshawar edition
PM assures Kabul of full support in Rabbani murder probe Karzai says Afghanistan understands instability in Pakistan cannot be source of stability in Afghanistan
Clinical Pakistan thrash Sri Lanka Page 22
pakistantoday.com.pk
saturday, 12 november, 2011 Zul-Haj 15, 1432
Pakistan committed to peace, Gilani tells Karzai
ADDU
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StAFF RePoRt
EITERATING their commitment to the peace process, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Friday decided to work to further strengthen their cooperation to ensure peace, security and stability in the region, with President Hamid Karzai expecting Islamabad to help investigate the assassination of Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani. In their one-hour meeting on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC summit, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed bilateral relations, regional situation and SAARC affairs, mainly focusing on peace in Afghanistan. As President Karzai termed Professor Rabbani’s death a setback to the peace process, Prime Minister Gilani assured him that Pakistan would fully support and cooperate in the investigation into the killing of the Afghan leader. Talking to reporters after his meeting with President Karzai, Gilani said that Rabbani’s killing was a setback to the peace and reconciliation process. “Pakistan will extend full cooperation to the recently constituted joint investigation commission to probe Professor Rabbani’s murder,” he said, adding that Rabbani was a sincere friend and his death was a great loss to Pakistan. “We need to sincerely commit not to allow our respective national territories to be used for activities detrimental to each other’s interests,” Gilani said, emphasising that reconciliation and reintegration in Afghanistan had to be entirely Afghan-led, Afghanowned and part of a domestic political process. The prime minister said that his government had made unprecedented efforts to improve relations with Afghanistan. He said that Pakistan was prepared to work
ADDU: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai before their meeting on Friday. in a cooperative mode with Afghanistan and other international partners to promote the shared objectives of stability and peace in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had joined the joint peace and reconciliation commission on the request of Afghanistan and was still ready to facilitate this process, if requested, adding that various trilateral and quadrilateral processes were aimed at creat-
ing an enabling environment to work on development agenda and promote trans-regional development cooperation.Gilani said these and other important processes such as the ECO and SCO were now gaining momentum. Both the countries agreed to convene the postponed trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan on mutually agreed dates. To a question,
I will rein-in army, ISI when in power: Imran NEW DELHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan on Friday said he would insist on civilian supremacy over the country’s powerful military if his party came into power, adding that he would rather resign if the army and the ISI did not function under him as prime minister. Days after the PTI stunned its opponents by drawing a mammoth crowd during a rally in Lahore, the cricketer-turned-politician said if he became the prime minister, he would press for civilian supremacy over the army and the ISI so that he could implement his agenda. “Unless I can implement my agenda – which means I take responsibility for everything that’s happening in Pakistan – it will mean that the army was under me and it will mean that the ISI can do nothing unless it reported to me, it means that the army’s budget will be audited by a civilian setup, it means I will take responsibility for anything that will happen inside my country, it means I will take responsibility that no terrorism will take place from the Pakistani soil otherwise, I will resign,” he told Karan Thapar in an interview with CNN-
IBN. Khan, 58, was responding to a question on whether he would challenge army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani and the corps commanders. Asked specifically if he would be Gen Kayani’s boss on becoming the premier, Khan said, “100 percent. I have never ever been controlled by anyone.” “When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was prime minister, he sacked the army chief and the air chief… When the great Jinnah was in charge, you could never imagine the army asserting itself. We have non-leaders in Pakistan. These people are here to make money. They are not interested in governance,” he said in the interview. He said the army was controlling the situation in Balochistan, the Tribal Areas and the erstwhile Taliban stronghold of Swat with “no civilian input” while the country’s largest city of Karachi was controlled by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers. Asked about media reports that his party had the backing of the military and questioned about his lack of criticism of the military, Khan contended that he had never been controlled by anyone in his public life
Hamid Karzai said strategic agreement between Afghanistan and India was not against Pakistan or any other country in the region. He said it would help promote education and development in Afghanistan. “We fully understand that instability in Pakistan cannot be a source of stability in Afghanistan and vice versa,” the Afghan president said.
Gilani invites Singh to visit Pakistan ADDU AGencieS
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has invited his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan and reinforced this with an emotional appeal, requesting him to visit his birthplace in an area which is now in Pakistan. “Pakistan’s prime minister was very keen that the Indian prime minister should visit Pakistan,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters. It will be an opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations as well as an opportunity to visit his ancestral place, Gilani told Manmohan Singh, according to Mathai. The dates would be decided by mutual consultations. Manmohan Singh was born in Gah, a village which is now located in Pakistani Punjab. If Manmohan Singh does visit Pakistan, it will be the first prime ministerial visit from India to that country since 2004 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee went there for the SAARC summit and held bilateral talks that led to the resumption of the dialogue process between the two countries. Gilani said he respected Singh’s comments, who described him as a “Man of Peace”, following his talks on the sidelines of the SAARC summit. “I respect his sentiments,” Gilani told reporters when asked to comment about the remarks. “We all are working for peace. He really wants better relations with the neighbours,” Gilani said. Manmohan Singh has said his government had decided to sign preferential trade agreement with Pakistan. The meeting of trade ministers of Pakistan and India will be held in New Delhi on the 14th of this month. The Indian PM also said a visa-free system would be implemented soon to replace the current system. Indian media has called the measure in response to according India the Most Preferred Nation status by Pakistan for trade. According to the Indian media, PM Singh said the people of the two countries were closely related and that the era of accusations and counteraccusations should now end.
Gen Kayani pushes US on intelligence sharing Army chief tells CENTCOM chief Pakistan would facilitate Taliban talks but cannot guarantee success g
ISLAMABAD SHAiq HUSSAin
of 35 years. “Have I got a price tag on me? Can anyone buy me?” he asked. “Why should I criticise [the army chief] when in a parliamentary democracy, the prime minister is the head of state? He has all the authority, he has all the responsibility,” he said. Khan claimed the premier was responsible for tackling any corruption in the army. “This is supposed to be a democratic setup, either they should say that they are not in charge (or) they should resign. If they cannot be responsible for what is going on in Pakistan, they should resign,” he said. INP
TTP says Imran an ‘amerIcan slave’ | Page 04
Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Friday asked the US military to share intelligence information on terrorist hideouts so that the Pakistan Army could take action against them, instead of the CIA carrying out drone strikes on its own in the Tribal Areas. General Kayani was taking to General James N Mattis, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), who called on him in Rawalpindi. General Kayani also told the US general that Pakistan would facilitate Washington-backed dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban, but it could not extend any guarantee for the success of the talks. “The two military commanders discussed bilateral issues and matters of mutual interest, with special emphasis on improving coordination between ISAF and Pakistan Army, at PakAfghan border,” said a brief ISPR statement.
An official said General Kayani and General Mattis agreed on the need to improve intelligence cooperation between the two sides in the fight against terrorism. conTInued on Page 04