Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday denied that the nation's military was playing a double game in Afghanistan by backing militant groups, but admitted that 'jihadi' elements could be involved.
"Let me deny this notion that any of our armed forces are directly or indirectly involved (with militants in Afghanistan)," Zardari told a news conference that he addressed along with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after a trilateral summit.
"Yes, I cannot deny that there is a residue in Pakistan of the war that was fought against the Soviet Union in the Cold War era," Zardari said, in response to a question about allegations that Pakistan's military, especially the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, was backing the Afghan Taliban.
"We cannot deny that maybe there are people among our population who are involved in this (drug trafficking and funding terrorism). This is a world problem which has been left with us to look after," he said.
Zardari said the drug trade in Afghanistan still generates billions of dollars that funds terrorist activities.
He said he had raised this issue both within Pakistan and with the US administration."I have called world attention to the drug problem," he said.
Zardari contended that he and the Pakistani people had personal reasons to combat terrorism as they had suffered losses due to militant activity.
In this regard, he referred to the assassination of his wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, and said he still did not know who was financing slain Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who was accused of being behind the murder.
The Pakistani President said his Iranian and Afghan counterparts and leaders of the extended neighbourhood would fight the menace of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Responding to a question about cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban rather than depending on the US to take the lead in such moves, President Karzai said: "I agree that the distance between Kabul and Islamabad is much shorter than the distance between Kabul and Washington or Islamabad and Washington."
Any "impediments" standing in the way of Pakistan-Afghanistan cooperation should be removed "sooner rather than later," Karzai said.
Recent engagements between the two sides had been fruitful and led to "proper understanding of difficulties brought upon us," he added.
Karzai said both the bilateral engagements and the tripartite summit were "futuristically oriented" and led to recognition of the opportunities and dangers.
"What we need now is to formulate a policy that's actionable and implementable and act upon it," he said.
Islamabad recently launched a fresh effort to re-engage Kabul for the reconciliation process with the Afghan Taliban when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited Afghanistan.
Pakistan is keen on playing a key role in the peace process to counter what it perceives as India’s growing influence within Afghanistan.
President Ahmadinejad too said the joint declaration signed following the trilateral summit indicated the determination of the three nations to overcome challenges and problems for the interest of the people of the region.
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