Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan, on Tuesday criticized the coalition government for issuing irresponsible statements against the Taliban-led Afghan administration and stressed cooperation with Afghanistan.
While addressing a seminar in Islamabad via video link from Lahore, Imran Khan said federal ministers are issuing irresponsible statements that they are planning to attack Afghanistan. He warned that there would be a never-ending war if the Afghan government stopped cooperating with Pakistan.
The PTI chief said the coalition government needed to focus on talks with its Afghan counterpart and that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s first foreign visit should have been to war-torn Afghanistan.
Khan advises government to engage with Afghan Taliban
Imran Khan said military operations “never” bear fruit and are part of peace agreements. He reiterated that the Pakistani government should engage with the Afghan Taliban to avoid terror activities in Pakistan.
“We had a golden opportunity when the US left Afghanistan; we tried to improve our ties with the Ashraf Ghani administration as best as we could and decided in principle not to intervene in Afghan affairs,” Khan said.
But once the Taliban took over, Khan kept engaging with them, saying that “Pakistan helped evacuate foreigners from Afghanistan.”
Khan said that during his tenure, the National Security Committee (NSC) had decided to support the tribal areas, but the current regime did not focus on them.
“The current rulers are focusing on ending their corruption cases, and they have not focused on the economy,” he said, claiming that there has been an increase in terror incidents due to the government’s policies.
The PTI chairman said that controlling the borders is the federal government’s responsibility. He noted, “I had already said that when you cannot control your economy, you cannot eliminate terrorism.”
