Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan cannot be held “responsible” for the actions of the Taliban and his government is not a spokesperson for the group.
A delegation of journalists from Afghanistan, currently in Pakistan to participate in the Pak-Afghan Media Conclave in Islamabad, held an interaction with Imran Khan late Wednesday and asked him questions related to Pakistan’s stance on the current Afghan situation. The interview was aired on Thursday.
“What Taliban are doing or not doing, has nothing to do with Pakistan.” “We are not responsible, neither we are a spokesperson for Taliban,” he categorically stated.
He said there were three million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan and pointed out that keeping a vigil on the 25,000 to 30,000 of them daily crossing over to Afghanistan and returning, was a huge challenge.
He termed as “unfortunate’ the recent statements from the Afghan government officials accusing Pakistan of supporting the Taliban.
“No country has ever tried harder than Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the dialogue table – first with the Americans and then with the Afghan government,” he said and mentioned that the efforts were also acknowledged by US Special Representative Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
“Hold us responsible only when the Afghan refugees return back to their homeland,” he said, referring to the porous Pak-Afghan border, of which Pakistan had completed 90 percent of its fencing to stop infiltration.
He said that Pakistan has “no favourites” in Afghanistan and it would support any government in the neighbouring country, chosen by the Afghans themselves.
“We do not have any favourites in Afghanistan. Our policy is that whoever the people of Afghanistan choose, Pakistan will have the best relationship with them.”
The prime minister said Pakistan was no longer pursuing its 90s’ policy of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan as his government strongly believed that “Afghanistan can never be controlled from outside”.
Imran Khan said a political compromise between the Afghan government and the Taliban to form an inclusive government was the only solution to achieve peace. “All we want is peace in Afghanistan,” he added.
He said he always opposed a military solution of Afghanistan but supported the political one. Asked if military establishment shaped Pakistan’s foreign policy, he said, it was India that unfortunately perpetuated such feelings among Afghans.
“Whatever foreign policy we have has been part of our party’s manifesto for the past 25 years,” he said.
On India, he said the Pakistan army fully backed the government’s initiatives of maintaining peace with the neighbouring country.
“It is India that refused to have peace as it is controlled by the RSS ideology, which is anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim,” he said.
To a question on whether Pakistan, Afghanistan and India could hold a trilateral meeting to resolve their “longstanding issues”, he said Pakistan would not be ready for such an arrangement until India reverts its illegal act of August 5, 2019, where it had changed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The prime minister said Pakistan was concerned for peace in Afghanistan because the country’s economic strategies greatly depended on it.
A peaceful Afghanistan, he said could act as a corridor for Pakistan’s trade route to Central Asian states and could also benefit from Pakistan’s Gwadar seaport.
He feared that a continued civil war between Taliban and the Afghan government would certainly spill over to Pakistan’s tribal areas leading to an influx of refugees.
“Pakistan cannot afford such a situation and for this reason is trying its best for a political solution in Afghanistan,” he added.
On investigation of the “alleged abduction” of the daughter of Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, he said, “Her account about taxi drivers does not tally with what the [CCTV] cameras showed”.
The prime minister said the CCTV footage of the time of the incident showed Silsila Alikhil, the daughter of the Afghan envoy, was travelling in a taxi without any fear but she claimed that unidentified abductors tortured her before bundling her into a taxi.
He maintained that they had traced and interrogated the taxi driver and obtained the videos from the Safe City cameras, adding that there were discrepancies in her statement and the probe report.
The prime minister said, unfortunately, the ambassador’s daughter had left the country and there was no way to confirm what had happened.
A team would be arriving from Afghanistan and the government would share all information with it, he said. He maintained that the Afghanistan team could question the ambassador’s daughter on the basis of the videos and the investigation done by the Pakistani police.
On promoting cricket collaboration between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said the Afghan team improved in such a short span of time.
“They learnt it [cricket] in the refugee camps here, so it is remarkable,” he said.
On the future of Pak-Afghan relationship, he said it would “get stronger with every passing year”.
“Once the situation in Afghanistan calms down, which we pray for, we would have our best ties,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan maintained that Pakistan sought, more than any country in the world, lasting peace in war-battered Afghanistan as it will afford Islamabad unimpeded access to central Asian countries.
The five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — have been isolated to the south by Afghanistan, to the east by rough terrain with nearly impassable mountains, and to the west by Iran, making engagement with their South Asian counterparts both implausible and difficult.
From their standpoint, the corridor will open a completely new and shortest path to the emerging markets in South Asia, including Pakistan.
While responding to a question posed to him, Imran said the future economic plan and policies of Pakistan depended on peace and political stability in Afghanistan.
Imran recalled that he had always advocated a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. The choice, he observed, now rested with the Afghan people: either they can pursue a military-backed solution or seek a political settlement consisting of a government that includes Taliban representation.
He recalled Islamabad had in February inked an agreement with Uzbekistan for a 600-kilometre-long railway track from Mazar-i-Sharif city of Afghanistan to Peshawar via Kabul to enhance regional connectivity.
At the outset of the interview, the prime minister said India through a unilateral move on August 5, 2019, while violating multiple United Nations resolutions, changed the semi-autonomous status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, opening a new chapter of atrocities and rights violations against the Muslim population of the region.
He said Pakistan has been raising its voice for the protection of the rights of the people of Kashmir at the international level since 1948.
Imran recalled he recently visited Afghanistan and enjoyed amicable terms with its President Ashraf Ghani.
To a question about the promotion of sports, especially cricket, in Afghanistan, the prime minister said no country in the history of cricket had achieved great progress in a short span of time as Afghanistan.
The position of cricket in Afghanistan had been realised by other countries, he said, observing the main reason behind this success was learning of the craft by Afghanistan refugees residing in Pakistan.
He said that his foreign policy was based on his party’s 25 years of the manifesto.
He said being the head of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for the last 25 years as well as being the head of government since 2018, he held the same positing on Afghanistan. The military was fully supportive of his government’s position.
