Sharif calls for `managed` pullout from Afghanistan

Ankara: Pakistan`s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Thursday called on all concerned parties to strive to maintain regional peace and security as NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan before the end of 2014.

"We hope the withdrawal will be managed while preserving regional peace and security," Xinhua quoted Sharif as saying in a written statement before the opening of a Turkey-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Summit in Ankara. "We also wish Afghanistan every success in drawing a path for sustainable peace," Sharif said. Sharif said Islamabad supported a sovereign, independent and united Afghanistan, expressing the hope that the NATO withdrawal would not hamper Afghanistan`s peace and stability efforts. Sharif is on a three-day visit to Turkey for the trilateral summit, which started Thursday. Under the theme of `Sustainable Peace in the Heart of Asia`, the summit came against the backdrop of important political and security transitions in Afghanistan, including presidential and provincial council elections April 5 and the withdrawal of NATO forces by the end of this year. zee