Web Desk
Pakistan has decided to accord any recognition to the Taliban government in Afghanistan after consultations with regional and international powers.
” Pakistan does not intend to take a “unilateral decision” in this regard,” Federal Information Minister , Chaudhary Fawad Hussain told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Discussing the evolving situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s dramatic reclaiming of power in the war-torn country, Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan was a responsible member of the international community and its decisions will not be unilateral.
“We are in touch with our friends, both in [this] region and internationally, and we will decide accordingly,” he said.
Chaudhry further said Prime Minister Imran Khan also had a detailed discussion with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Erdogan a day ago on the Afghanistan situation, while the US secretary of state had spoken to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the same issue.
Regarding the manner of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, he said: “We are pleased and satisfied that the change [of power] in Afghanistan neither caused any bloodshed nor triggered a war, which is satisfactory.”
He said Pakistan had advised Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on a number of occasions in the past that it would be unfeasible for him to run Afghanistan unilaterally. “How could you run the country when a major ethnicity living in that country is not a part of the government?” Chaudhry questioned.
The minister recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan, during his recent address in Bajaur, had suggested the formation of a politically inclusive government in Afghanistan that enjoyed the trust of all in the country.
Meanwhile, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said that the Taliban movement won’t allow territory of Afghanistan ‘to be used against anybody or any country’.
“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” the movement’s main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul on Tuesday.
The group previously declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a tense capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as thousands mobbed the city’s international airport in a desperate attempt to flee.
Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed as accprdomg to Western media, the Kabul airport’s tarmac and runway – which troops from the United States control – were now clear of crowds.
Miilitary flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan have started taking off.
At least seven people died in Monday’s chaos, including several people who clung to the sides of a jet as it took off.
The Taliban has meanwhile declared the war in Afghanistan over and a senior leader said the group would wait until foreign forces had left before creating a new governance structure.
China said it was ready for “friendly relations” with the Taliban, while Russia and Iran also made diplomatic overtures.
