Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi while reaffirming Pakistan’s continuous support to the advancement of Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process after the signing of historic peace agreement between the United States and Taliban, cautioned against elements who could throw spanner in the works.
During an interview with the BBC Urdu, the foreign minister stressed upon taking further confidence building measures, including prisoners swap, after signing of the peace agreement to help improve the situation in Afghanistan.
Qureshi termed the peace deal “a first step towards the right direction”.
He said the parties involved would prefer and give due consideration to the peace and reconciliation in the country, adding that they expected that the confidence building measures would not be unilateral.
To a query, he said that certain elements who had fears from the agreement could act as spoilers.
These elements did not want to see such development and wanted to use the Afghan soil against Pakistan, he added.
He said for avoiding internal conflicts and chaos in Afghanistan, the agreement was reached after learning from the past experiences.
The foreign minister said Pakistan always supported the Afghan peace and reconciliation process owned and led by Afghans themselves. “The country belonged to Afghans and they had to move ahead to decide about their future.”
To another question, Qureshi maintained that for securing a permanent peace, an all-inclusive Afghan dialogue process would be effective. In a statement, he said that it was the responsibility of the Afghan leadership to create a favourable environment to take the talks forward. “Pakistan can create a favourable environment; it cannot take [Afghanistan’s] decisions.”
The Foreign Minister observed that this process will not be easy at all but Afghanistan and its people will suffer if it does not succeed. He reminded that the war of two decades did not give anything to the Afghan people. War is not a solution to any problem.
He said it is the test case of the Afghan leadership as well as all the other groups whether they move forward or resort to the same intransigence. He said Pakistan desires peace and stability in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan played its role which was also appreciated by the world community.
The foreign minister said that they had offered huge sacrifices for securing Pakistan. To make the Pak-Afghan border secure, it was being fenced and they expected the Afghan government to take it as positive step, he said.
The foreign minister also strongly rebuffed any interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and said Pakistan always supported the global efforts for the betterment of Afghanistan and the region.
About Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir issue, he said the Indian government had committed a blunder on August 5 last year. “Strong protests had exploded throughout India over such illegal steps.”
He said the Indian forces had laid siege of the occupied valley after enactment of the discriminatory laws in sheer violations of the basic human rights, besides putting the whole Kashmiri political leadership behind bars. Under such a situation, dialogue with the neighbouring country was not possible, he said.
Separately, Qureshi said that a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should be held on the ongoing situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) as the people of Pakistan have expectations with the organisation.
Addressing a press conference along with the OIC Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir Yousef M Al Dobeay in Islamabad, he said that many resolutions of the Islamic organisation regarding Kashmir are present.
He said that OIC Secretary General s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir Yousef M Al Dobeay has been apprised on the current situation in the occupied Kashmir.
