Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Tuesday said talks with banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been initiated on the request of Afghanistan’s interim government.

“Our point of view is that right now Pakistan must talk from position of strength … authorities in Afghanistan also wanted us to negotiate a deal with the TTP,” the minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad after a cabinet meeting.

To a query, the minister said the negotiations would be going on with the group under the purview of the constitution. “All the groups, who we are talking to, have to respect Pakistan’s constitution and Pakistan legal framework. As far as the nature of talks is concerned we are very clear about that as well,” he added.

He said there were certain groups as obviously the TTP was not one group and comprised on several groups who had some ideologue and those who had joined it under compulsion. “If all of them or some of them or part of them want to come back and they express their allegiance to the constitution of Pakistan and they undertake to respect the law of Pakistan, obviously, we give them a chance,” he emphasized.

The TTP had issued proclamation through which they announced ceasefire, he said, adding, “Ultimately, the wars are fought primarily to bring peace, wars are not there for indefinite time period, you have to conclude the wars.”

“We believe that they [Afghan authorities] have good intention towards Pakistan, we believe that new authorities in Afghanistan want peace in Pakistan. In their efforts, we would like to help them and also this phenomena that war should continue for indefinite that is obviously something we need to discourage,” he said, adding that the government wanted peace in these areas which was only possible through talks. “We have only agreed upon ceasefire yet and let’s see what more will be agreed when the talks move forward,” he said while responding to another query.

To another query, Fawad said Pakistan’s government wanted inclusive government in Afghanistan having representation of Uzbek, Tajik and others. “But, we are also asking international community to help the humans in Afghanistan.” He said that the federal cabinet, in a passionate appeal, has urged the global community especially Muslim Ummah, to rally support for averting humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. He said formal approval to set up a special fund for support of Afghan people in turbulent times, was also given in the meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Fawad said the initiative would definitely enable people of Pakistan to extend direct help to Afghan brethren as the government wanted uninterrupted humanitarian efforts for the war-ravaged country.

The minister said Pakistan was planning to host a conference of foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) next month to discuss ways and means for extending maximum support to Afghanistan at this critical juncture.

“We believe what is going on in Afghanistan is catastrophic; we have been trying our best, and did our best to convey our concerns to the world and we are willing to take all actions whatever we can to help people of Afghanistan,” he remarked.

Pakistan was working closely with interim government in Afghanistan, he said, adding its foreign minister’s visit was due here a in day during which efforts for humanitarian assistance would be discussed at length to avert any catastrophic situation in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had already warned that situation in Afghanistan was becoming gave by every day and added Afghans would be the ultimate sufferers. Citing The Economist recent report, he said: “Afghanistan was on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the UN said on 25 October that it would even exceed the misery in Syria and Yemen.” He said that gravity of the situation could be judged by the fact that eight children had died due to starvation and there have been troubling reports that people were forced to sell their minor children for getting wheat and rice. The Afghan people could not be left at the mercy of the circumstances, he added.