Daily Times

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Saturday that peace cannot be established in Kabul unless all the warring factions in Afghanistan sit together.

“Durable peace in Afghanistan was an imperative economic progress for the whole region, the minister said in an interview with a private news channel. The minister said categorically that Pakistan will not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs as it is only playing a role in the restoration of peace.

“When the erstwhile Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan, Pakistan was not taken on board, but later when it withdrew from Afghanistan, Pakistan had to face its consequences,” he said.

Fawad said Pakistan was also blamed for Osama Bin Laden. “We considered the people of Afghanistan as our brothers, we took care of more than five million Afghan refugees; the children of Afghan refugees studied in Pakistan and became engineers, doctors, and athletes,” he said.

He said that the situation inside Afghanistan could be improved by the people of Afghanistan, not Pakistan. The Afghan government and various factions have to sit together and find a solution to the problem. Pakistan has persuaded the Afghan Taliban to negotiate with the United States and sit at the table with the Afghan regime.

He said that if there is peace in Afghanistan then the economy of the whole region will change. He said that train service from Tashkent to Karachi via Kabul was being planned and a truck system was also in the pipeline but peace was a prerequisite for all these projects.

“There is no consensus on the constitution in Afghanistan. Unless there is a consensus on the constitution in Afghanistan, there can be no peace,” he said.

The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan understands Pakhtun traditions very well. The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan paid attention to the welfare of the tribal people and Rs54 billion have been earmarked in this budget for the development of merged districts of Pakhtunkhwa.

“We have fenced off 90 per cent of the border with Afghanistan,” he said, adding that the “blood of the Afghan people is as sacred as the blood of the people of Pakistan”.

“We want to see peace in Afghanistan like peace in Pakistan. The children of Afghanistan are like our own children and we are striving for peace there “he said.

Fawad stated that India wants to have a “terrorist network in Afghanistan” to foment instability in Pakistan. “If Afghanistan becomes a peaceful place, India’s terrorist network will be doomed,” he added.

Fawad opined that instability would be created in Afghanistan if a government was formed at gunpoint. He said the Interior Ministry has set up a committee to look into the issue of Afghan refugees. He said that several terrorist networks of India had been unearthed in Balochistan. The minister said that the government would negotiate with disgruntled people in the province.