Karzai's visit meets cautious optimism

Afghan refugee community leaders are cautiously welcoming Afghan President Hamid Karzai's upcoming one-day visit to Pakistan on Tuesday. "It's good that Karzai is visiting our neighbours, but it's equally important that such tours deliver substantial results on key issues," Fatana Gailani, head of the Afghan Women's Council, told IRIN from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday. She said Afghan refugees in Pakistan were facing many difficulties, which would hopefully be addressed. "The situation in Afghanistan remains difficult for many returnees, and refugees here should not be pushed to go back," she said, adding that Karzai should describe Afghanistan's problems, such as the lack of a functioning economy, insecurity and diminishing international assistance, rather than projecting a rosy picture of the country. While some two million Afghans still live in Pakistani refugee villages and urban centres, the two countries, together with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, signed a tripartite agreement in March to repatriate all Afghan refugees within a period of three years. The recent announcement of the closure of the decades-old Kacha Garhi camp in Peshawar presented the thousands of Afghans living there with tough options. "There should be no pressure on Afghan refugees to leave Pakistan," Gailani maintained. After two decades of fighting, many Afghans are hesitant over going home, fearing political persecution. "Bitter political rivalries prevail in our country and it's harsh to push political activists and leaders to a relatively insecure and unstable environment in the country," she said. Gailani added that Karzai's visit should also address the issue of hundreds of Afghans languishing in Pakistani prisons. "Those involved in minor crimes should be freed," she said. While up to 1,000 Pakistani former fighters await their fate in Afghan jails, experts believe that the issue needs an immediate amicable resolution to boost ties between the two countries. With Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanging fire over the border in Ghulam Khan village along the southeastern Afghan province of Khowst on Thursday, border security is expected to be one of the top issues on Karzai's itinerary. "Both countries share a very long border, and all disputes should be resolved through a common border commission," an Afghan political activist and community leader, Babrak Shinwari, told IRIN. The two nations share a 2,430-km-long border named after the British colonial administrator, Sir Mortimer Durand, who drew the line with the Afghan king, Abdor Rahman Khan, in 1893. Afghan officials recently indicated to the international press that anti-government militants were infiltrating their country from the southern and southeastern borders with Pakistan. Shinwari maintained that Islamabad should only back the internationally recognised administration in Kabul. "Both countries have no choice but to coexist peacefully," he said. Meanwhile, the international media quoted Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, as saying the border dispute with Afghanistan had been amicably resolved. "They met, discussed and resolved the matter," he said. He also denied the charges that the remnants of Afghanistan's former hardline Islamist Taliban rulers had found a safe haven in the lawless border region of Pakistan, and were launching cross-border attacks to destabilise Karzai's government. "No such activity is taking place from our soil along the Afghan border," he added.