Pakistan PM urges 'managed'pullout from Afghanistan

Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday called on relevant 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," Sharif said 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 stressed that Islamabad supports a sovereign, independent and united Afghanistan, expressing the hope that the NATO withdrawal does not hamper Afghanistan's peace and stability efforts. Sharif is on a three-day visit in 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 on April 5 and the drawdown of NATO forces by the end of this year.