AAMIR SAEED, ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday offered Afghanistan to build a partnership for the future to ensure peaceful coexistence and lasting stability in the region. “We are joined by geography. We cannot walk away. We have to live together and we have to carve out our future collectively,” he said while addressing a session of the two-day summit on Afghan refugees here in Islamabad. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees had jointly organized the summit with Pakistan to mark 40 years since the beginning of Afghan displacement. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the conference to express solidarity with Afghan refugees and recognize Pakistan’s efforts to host them.

“We need to build a partnership for the future … we can easily look at faults, point fingers, but there is a history of coexistence, caring and sharing,” the foreign minister said while conveying this message to Afghan leadership. Pakistan is the world’s second-largest host of refugees with over 2 million Afghans living in different parts of the country since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Qureshi also lauded the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces where majority of the Afghan refugees have been living for their support to the displaced people.

“The government alone couldn’t have done it,” he said. “The government’s resources and ability was limited.”

The minister said that the local values and customs also helped ensure that the refugees were not discriminated at any stage in the country. “The refugees were allowed to move out, ply their transport and do trade without any discrimination,” he added.

The refugee summit comes at a time when the United States and Taliban are said to be close to a peace deal. The US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has also attended the conference and met the civil and military leadership of Pakistan to discuss the future of Afghan refugees after reaching a peace agreement with the Taliban by the end of this month.

However, analysts say it is highly unlikely that the refugees will start moving to their homeland immediately after the US-Taliban peace deal since it will take time to restore peace and build necessary infrastructure to accommodate over three million refugees back home.

“The refugee families have established their businesses and relationships with the locals, so it won’t be easy for them to pack up,” Zaigham Khan, a senior analyst from tribal districts, told Arab News.

However, he added that Afghan refugees would serve as ambassadors of Pakistan when they returned to their home country. “Our people have looked after them as their brothers and sisters during difficult times,” he added.