Dawn leaks' story was baseless, speculative and wrong: Aizaz Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Ambassador in Washington Aizaz Chaudhry on Tuesday said that Dawn leaks story was baseless, speculative and wrong and the matter has now been settled after a long inquiry.

“Pakistan is committed to eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Pakistan will never allow its soil to be used against any other country and expects that no other country will allow anyone to operate from there against Pakistan,” he said while addressing at Ambassador Series Program of World Affairs Council.

He said Pakistan was not a friend of Taliban. We had sent Taliban a clear message that for the peace and stability in Afghanistan they have to talk to the Afghan government.

“We welcome peace negotiations of Afghan government with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,” he said.

The ambassador said that peace in Afghanistan was Pakistan’s highest priority. A stable, prosperous and developed Afghanistan was not only in the favour of Pakistan but the entire region. USA has made massive investment in Afghanistan over the years and would be interested in taking it to its logical conclusion, he added.

“The first and foremost goal of the US in Afghanistan must be to strengthen Afghan National Security forces. Pakistan wants systematic border management along Pak-Afghan border in order to check the cross border movement of miscreants effectively,” he said.

Aizaz Chaudhry said that there was a tendency to put blame on Pakistan for failure in Afghanistan which was not true. Afghanistan had multiple problems which were not related to terrorism only, he said adding that Pakistan could not be made a scapegoat.

“Pakistan firmly believes that a comprehensive approach is required to find an amicable solution of the Afghan problem. There is no military solution to the Afghanistan issue. A comprehensive political strategy is required,” he said.

About Pak-US relations, the ambassador said that Pakistan is looking for a broad-based, sustainable and not a transactional relationship with the US.

“Pakistan and the US have historic relations spanning over seven decades. Whenever Pakistan and the US worked together in the past, both the countries benefitted and it had yielded positive results, the ambassador added.

Ambassador Chaudhry said that bilateral relations between the Pakistan and the US are tremendously important. US is the largest trading partner of Pakistan. Both the countries have deeper relations with each other in the fields such as Education, Health, Counter Terrorism and Defense.

“Almost 50,000 Pakistani physicians are working in the USA at the moment. A million plus Pakistani diaspora in the US is a big asset and is working as a bridge between the two countries. Ambassador Chaudhry underscored that there is a need to enhance cooperation in those areas which are lagging behind,” he said.