Karachi: Pakistan will 'selectively' fence and mine its border with Afghanistan despite protests from that country, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on the eve of his visit to Kabul.

Aziz, who began his Kabul visit on Thursday, told reporters in Karachi the day before that Islamabad would continue to honour the eastern neighbour's 'easement rights' clause of the Durand Line Agreement of 1893, which allows cross-border social and commercial interaction for tribes in the border area.

The 100-year agreement signed during the British era has lapsed. Afghanistan did not recognise it once the British left the region and Pakistan became its immediate neighbour.

Aziz said fencing and mining would take place only on points along the Durand Line, which are frequently used by militants on both sides of the border. "This will help us discourage those elements effectively," he said.

"Everybody is entitled to their opinions," Aziz said about Kabul's reaction to the plan.

However, a 'significant' breakthrough was unlikely from the visit.

 "There is a lack of trust between Islamabad and Kabul and each side is not recognising the other's difficulty," Afghan affairs analyst Juma Khan Sufi told Daily Times.

"In such a situation, how can you expect a breakthrough from this short visit?" Sufi asked.

Quoting unnamed government sources, the newspaper said Aziz would explain to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai that Pakistan's intention in fencing the border was to restrict cross-border movement by terrorists

"This reiteration indicates that there is no meeting ground between Pakistan and Afghanistan on two contentious issues  fencing of the border and holding of jirgas, or tribal elders' councils," experts said.

"But the problem is that Kabul is not interested in fencing and Islamabad in the jirga. Pakistan has asked Afghanistan to first hold jirgas in areas where the insurgency is going on but Kabul is not listening," the sources pointed out.

Holding of jirgas was mooted by Pakistan, first when President Pervez Musharraf visited Kabul on Sep 1 last year and again when US President George W. Bush hosted a dinner for the Pakistan and Afghanistan presidents in October.
 

Musharraf had suggested that just as Pakistan was holding jirgas on its own territory, Afghanistan should do likewise as a precursor to holding joint jirgas to address the larger problem confronting the tribals on both sides.