ISLAMABAD: The world needs to support Kabul, where the Taliban are struggling to form an inclusive government, in achieving the goal that was imperative for a stable Afghanistan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Monday.
Speaking to TRT World, a Turkish news broadcaster, he said the West has embarrassed itself by refusing to listen to Pakistan about its apprehensions and expressed fear that if mistakes of the past were repeated, the situation in Afghanistan would only further deteriorate.
How does Pakistan deal with decades of war in neighbouring Afghanistan? We ask Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry pic.twitter.com/MxY6Uy03DQ
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 30, 2021
The government in Afghanistan has to be formed by the people of Afghanistan, he said. The regional and the world powers share responsibility in facilitating this process, he stressed.
The minister said Pakistan was facilitating the process of installing an all-inclusive broad-based regime in Afghanistan. The war-torn country had been left alone in the past, he added, expressing fear that the international community was going to repeat the same mistakes.
“If the same mistakes are repeated again, that means we will create a hub of extremist organisations right at the border of Pakistan which is obviously worrisome for us,” he said.
He said when the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988, Pakistan had to deal with the deteriorating situation on the ground and now the United States and NATO troops have withdrawn hastily from Afghanistan, and Pakistan again was again left to deal with the matter.
Now Pakistan was keeping a close eye on this matter, said the minister. If the situation in Afghanistan did not stabilise, millions of people would start moving towards Pakistan, he said.
He recalled Pakistan has been hosting 3.5 million Afghan refugees for more than three decades and the country’s economy could not afford the expenses of more refugees.
The efforts of the international community were necessary to solve the Afghanistan question, said Fawad.
He said Pakistan was playing the role of a responsible state and striving for a stable Afghanistan and was working with regional and international powers in this regard. Unrest in Afghanistan was detrimental not only to Pakistan but to the entire world, he asserted.
As the was Kabul was achieved without firing a single bullet, there was no crisis for refugees at the moment and the situation on the borders was normal right now, he said to a question.
“We have evacuated foreigners and those working for foreign companies from Kabul”, he said, recalling that special Pakistan International Airlines flights have evacuated over 4,500 people from Afghanistan.
The minister said a comprehensive strategy has been formulated to deal with the prospects of the influx of more Afghan refugees as the government did not want to a repeat of 1979 episode.
This time, “Pakistan would not allow the refugees to go to the mainland”, he said. The world should come forward to help Pakistan in meeting the challenge, he added.
He said the world did not pay heed to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advice in the past, he lamented, observing the former Afghanistan President, Ashraf Ghani, did not hold general elections in the country which resulted in the present crisis due to lack of a consensual government in Kabul.
He said two blocs including the Troika Plus — comprising Russia, China, US and Pakistan — and the other comprising regional countries Turkey, Pakistan, Central Asian states and Iran should take the lead.
The minister said Pakistan and Turkey were in close cooperation on the issue and they were partners in peace in Afghanistan.
