PARIS, Jun 12 (APP): Pakistan on Thursday pledged 20 million dollars to Afghanistan for repatriation of Afghan refugees in their homeland and appealed for greater international assistance for the war-torn country. "To facilitate their (Afghan) repatriation, maintain their honour and security and help in their settlement in Afghanistan, it give me great pleasure to pledge $20 million to Afghanistan," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in Paris. The Minister was addressing an international conference for support of Afghanistan. He said the complex problems in Afghanistan are not going to lend themselves to quick and neat solutions."However, greater economic assistance can help in ensuring that Afghanistan stays the course," he added. Moreover, he added, it would also send the signal that the people of Afghanistan are not alone and the international community is with them. He said Pakistan was of the view that the international assistance to Afghanistan needs to be channeled more through its government. "We need to appreciate that in a situation like Afghanistan, the leading role by the government in reconstruction and economic development, is also essential for strengthening and enlarging the writ of the state," he added. Qureshi called for understanding the challenges of reconstruction, reconciliation and governance in Afghanistan and said they are inter-linked. "Without Afghan ownership, it is doubtful that significant success can be achieved in any of these areas." He said Pakistan will continue to have security cooperation with Afghanistan, under the mechanism of the "Tripartite Military Commission". Pakistan, he added, will also extend assistance in the construction work in Afghanistan. Moreover, it will not only revive but reinvigorate the process of 'Joint Peace Jirga" that is a traditional mechanism for reconciliation through dialogue. "We believe, that in the given situation, for building peace and stability, dialogue should have the primacy." It is only when dialogue fails or starts giving diminishing returns, that other options could be revisited. For these reasons, Pakistan hopes that avenues of dialogue, with those who are amenable to it, may be fully explored. In the field of governance, Qureshi offered Afghanistan to avail the training programmes in the disciplines of judiciary and police. He said international assistance to Afghanistan were needed in the areas related to capacity building of the Afghan polity, governance, security and reconstruction and drug control. "Pakistan hopes the international community would not be found wanting in responding to Afghanistan's requirements." The complex problems in Afghanistan are not going to lend themselves to quick and neat solutions. However, greater economic assistance can help in ensuring that Afghanistan, stays the course, he added. He said the Afghan presidential elections scheduled in 2009 and Parliamentary elections in 2010, hold great promise for further strengthening of the democratic dispensation over there. Afghans deserve financial and technical assistance of the international community, for holding these elections smoothly and successfully. He said Pakistan believes that close and cooperative relations are not only in the mutual interest of the two countries and its peoples but could also become a powerful dynamic of regional cooperation.
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