ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has reiterated that Pakistan wants an all-inclusive government in Afghanistan, saying that Islamabad believes stability in Kabul can only come by including all ethnic groups on board.
Talking to English news channel BBC, the minister asserted that in a meeting with former president Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Imran Khan has talked about an inclusive government even before the ongoing situation in Kabul had taken place.
“Our emphasis was on the inclusive government. Unfortunately, if the elections would have been delayed as PM Imran suggested earlier and an inclusive government would have been placed, things might be different today,” he added.
The information minister also said Pakistan firmly believes stability in Afghanistan can only be achieved through the inclusion of all ethnic groups in the government due to the ethnic diversity in the country.
“Pakistan is in touch with the regional powers, the United States and the United Kingdom to discuss the Afghanistan issue,” he pointed out. Speaking about Pakistan’s sacrifices rendered, Fawad said, “We have lost 80 thousand people and billions of dollars in the economy because of the Afghan war.”
“The reason why Pakistan is conveniently blamed by others’ fault is that the powers who should have heeded to Islamabad’s advice earlier but it was overlooked and we have paid the price of this conflict,” he added.
He further said that as far as the future of Afghanistan is concerned, Pakistan has to work together with the regional and international players for an inclusive government.
“We don’t have controlled influence over Taliban but we can bring Taliban’s on the table of talks with the US,” he said adding that Pakistan is also capable of taking on the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“We had a problem with the previous Afghan government as at that time India was using the Afghan soil for funding TTP,” he said. The minister further added that Pakistan welcomes the Taliban’s statement of their land not to be used against any country.
