ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan has \u201cno favourites\u201d in Afghanistan and it would support any government in the neighbouring country chosen by the Afghans themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d the prime minister said in response to a question of an Afghan journalist, here at the PM House.<\/p>\n
A delegation of journalists from Afghanistan, currently in Pakistan to participate in the Pak-Afghan Media Conclave in Islamabad, held an interaction with Prime Minister Imran Khan late Wednesday and asked him questions related to Pakistan\u2019s stance on the current Afghan situation.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said Pakistan was no longer pursuing its 90s\u2019 policy of strategic depth in Afghanistan as his government strongly believed that \u201cAfghanistan can never be controlled from outside\u201d.<\/p>\n
To a question on Taliban killing Afghans, the prime minister said, \u201cWhat Taliban are doing or not doing, has nothing to do with Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not responsible, neither we are a spokesperson for Taliban,\u201d he categorically stated.<\/p>\n
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 returned, was a huge challenge.<\/p>\n
He termed as \u201cunfortunate\u2019 the recent statements from the Afghan government officials accusing Pakistan of supporting the Taliban.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo country has ever tried harder than Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the dialogue table \u2013 first with the Americans and then with the Afghan government,\u201d he said and mentioned that the efforts were also acknowledged by U.S. Special Representative Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.<\/p>\n
\u201cHold us responsible only when the Afghan refugees return back to their homeland,\u201d he said, referring to the porous Pak-Afghan border, of which Pakistan had completed 90 percent of its fencing to stop infiltration.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cAll we want is peace in Afghanistan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Imran Khan said he always opposed a military solution of Afghanistan but supported the political one.<\/p>\n
Asked if military establishment shaped Pakistan\u2019s foreign policy, he said, it was India that unfortunately perpetuated such feelings among Afghans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever foreign policy we have has been part of our party\u2019s manifesto for the past 25 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On India, he said, the Pakistan army fully backed the government\u2019s initiatives of maintaining peace with the neighbouring country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is India that refused to have peace as it is controlled by the RSS ideology, which is anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To a question, if Pakistan, Afghanistan and India could hold a trilateral meeting to resolve their \u201clongstanding issues\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said Pakistan was concerned for peace in Afghanistan because the country\u2019s economic strategies greatly depended on it.<\/p>\n
A peaceful Afghanistan, he said, could act as a corridor for Pakistan\u2019s trade route to Central Asian states and could also benefit from Pakistan\u2019s Gwadar seaport.<\/p>\n
He feared that a continued civil war between Taliban and the Afghan government would certainly spill over to Pakistan\u2019s tribal areas leading to an influx of refugees.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan cannot afford such a situation and for this reason is trying its best for a political solution in Afghanistan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On investigation of the \u201calleged abduction\u201d of the daughter of Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, he said, \u201cHer account about taxi drivers does not tally with what the [CCTV] cameras showed\u201d.<\/p>\n
A team would be arriving from Afghanistan and the government would share all information with it, he said.<\/p>\n
On promoting cricket collaboration between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said the Afghan team improved in such a short span of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey learnt it [cricket] in the refugee camps here, so it is remarkable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On the future of Pak-Afghan relationship, he said it would \u201cget stronger with every passing year\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the situation in Afghanistan calms down, which we pray for, we would have our best ties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan has \u201cno favourites\u201d in Afghanistan and it would support any government in the neighbouring country chosen by the Afghans themselves. \u201cWe do not have any favourites in Afghanistan. Our policy is that whoever the people of […]<\/p>\n
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