PRESIDENT ZARDARI TO ATTEND NATO SUMMIT

The President, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, is scheduled to attend the NATO summit in Chicago on the invitation from the NATO Secretary. He is expected to leave for Chicago on Sunday to attend the summit. It is a welcome on the part of Pakistan as well as the NATO secretary general to invite Pakistan in this important summit taking fundamental decisions in regard to Afghanistan, regional security and stability in which Pakistan has deep interest. It is a known fact that Pakistan enjoys some influence in the region which is vital to be used for durable peace and stability in the region. Pakistan can contribute a lot in the peace process helping the international community to pullout the international force ISAF once confidence building among the regional countries and powers is made. There will be a permanent presence of Pakistan being the regional player in defending regional security while others are guests playing some role for some time. They had no permanent role in retaining peace while peace in the interest of Pakistan as it suffered a lot during the Afghan civil war spread over to more than three decades. The international community will have to trust Pakistan and extend some support to play the crucial role in retaining peace and stability as a powerful regional players. Once there is peace in Afghanistan, more than 3.5 million Afghan nationals will be asked to leave Pakistan and go back to their country and live with peace, honour and dignity with no threat to their lives and honour. It is the basic interest of Pakistan to shed the burden of 3.5 million Afghans in Pakistan. In any case, the Afghan nationals will have to leave Pakistan by December 2012 and afterwards they will be declared illegal immigrants forfeiting their right to stay as refugees under the UN cover. The Chicago Summit must succeed in resolving the Afghan imbroglio taking fundamental decisions to empower the Afghans for security and the regional countries helping the legitimate Afghan Government in retaining peace and stability. The International Community should help legitimate Government of Afghanistan to develop cordial relations with all its neighbours in promoting cooperation in all fields. The President of Pakistan is expected to play a crucial role and assure the world community that Pakistan will help resolve the Afghan imbroglio retaining peace and allowing NATO to withdraw its troops with complete confidence as there will be no return of Al Qaeda and their local allies to use Afghanistan as a terrorist base in future.