Afghan Gov’t Changes Policy Towards Pakistan: Karzai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that Afghanistan has changed its policy towards Pakistan and it wants to improve ties with Pakistan, a local TV channel reported Thursday.

Karzai flew to Islamabad on a two-day visit and held separate meetings with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistani army chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani.

Talking to Pakistani leaders, the visiting President said that Mullah Bardar’s arrest in Pakistan, the No. 2 of Afghan Taliban, is encouraging development for both countries and an extradition treaty is underway between the two countries, the private TV Express reported.

Karzai and Zardari both expressed the resolve to remove misunderstandings of the past and to jointly move forward in the fight against militancy.

Karzai said some Taliban were forced to civil war and both countries have suffered a lot due to terrorism.

Karzai said the political atmosphere in Afghanistan is conducive and both countries have the same problems, adding that military use is not the only solution to the Afghan problem.

He lauded the role of Pakistan in the war against terror, adding that it’s a fact that Taliban militants have sanctuaries in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Chief of Army Staff also held a meeting with Karzai and discussed the war on terror and the afghan border situation, and this is his second meeting with Karzai in this week.