Pakistan on Thursday said there had been no breakthrough in its strained relationship with Afghanistan, insisting that ties would not improve until the Afghan Taliban provided verifiable guarantees that Afghan soil would not be used for terrorist attacks against Pakistan.
Responding to questions during the weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said diplomatic engagement between the two countries remained active, with ambassadors continuing to meet in Kabul and Islamabad, but stressed that terrorism remained the central issue in bilateral relations.
“The ice has not broken,” Andrabi said, adding that Pakistan expected the Afghan Taliban administration to renounce support for terrorism and provide verifiable written assurances backed by concrete action before relations could normalize.
He also reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to facilitating humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, saying nearly 50 United Nations aid trucks had already transited through Pakistan and humanitarian corridors would remain open.
On the plight of Pakistani crew members held hostage by Somali pirates, the spokesperson described the situation as a grave crisis receiving the personal attention of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He said the Ministry of Human Rights had been designated as the focal ministry and was coordinating efforts.
Andrabi said securing the release of the hostages remained operationally difficult because the vessel was Somali-owned, registered in Somalia and the captives were being held in Puntland. Pakistan, he said, was working through bilateral and multilateral channels, including the International Maritime Organization and the Djibouti Code of Conduct Secretariat, while maintaining engagement with Somali authorities. He said the government fully empathized with the families of the captives and hoped for their early release.
The Foreign Office also confirmed that Pakistan had lodged a strong diplomatic protest with Japan over language concerning Pakistan in a recent India-Japan joint statement. Andrabi said Islamabad had conveyed that the references were “one-sided” and inconsistent with facts on the ground. He added that Japanese authorities had assured Pakistan there had been no shift in Tokyo’s policy towards Islamabad.
On counterterrorism, Andrabi said Pakistan continued efforts at the United Nations Security Council to seek action against the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), noting that discussions within sanctions committees were held behind closed doors. He pointed out that the BLA had already been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including Australia.
The spokesperson also rejected India’s renewed attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, describing the allegations as baseless and politically motivated. He reiterated Pakistan’s call for an independent and transparent international investigation into the incident and fact checked New Delhi of relying on rhetoric rather than evidence while ignoring Pakistan’s own concerns over Indian support for terrorism in Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign office spokesperson said the rochdale case was entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom, stressing that the individual was a British national convicted by a British court for offences committed in Britain. The Foreign Office said any decisions regarding his release, supervision or legal status rested solely with the UK authorities under British law, and rejected any suggestion of Pakistan’s involvement, saying Islamabad had no connection whatsoever with the matter or with any decisions relating to his release or subsequent treatment.