'Miffed' Pak calls Karzai's 'conditionalities' for strategic partnership 'misplaced'

Pakistan has strongly rejected comments by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which attached preconditions for a proposed strategic partnership pact between Islamabad and Kabul.

Karzai had said that conditions would be attached to negotiations on the Strategic Partnership Agreement with Pakistan.

He had said that Pakistan must stop "the export of terrorism, suicide bombers, interference and all the other things which result in killing and disturbing the Afghan people's tranquillity and destabilising Afghanistan", reports The Express Tribune.

"Once we are assured that Pakistan, with which we want to have a friendly relationship, meets these conditions - eliminates terrorism and extremism and stops the training and export of insurgency to Afghanistan - Afghanistan will be ready to work on this," Karzai was quoted, as saying.

However, Pakistan strongly rejected these accusations terming them totally "misplaced and without any basis".

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the proposed Strategic Partnership Agreement was suggested by Karzai during the Trilateral Summit held recently in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.

Referring to the allegations against Pakistan, the spokesman said that Pakistan had invested heavily both in terms of human and economic losses to promote stability in Afghanistan.

He, however, said that Pakistan would like to have a mature and responsible dialogue with Afghanistan, but added that "diplomacy through media should be avoided". (ANI)