ISLAMABAD:Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Saturday that peace cannot be established in Afghanistan unless all warring factions sit together.
“Durable peace in Afghanistan was an imperative economic progress for the whole region, the minister said in an interview with a private news channel.
The minister said categorically that Pakistan will not interfere inside Afghanistan but playing a role for restoration of peace.
Fawad Hussain said that some elements in Afghanistan want relations with New Delhi, but Afghanistan shared its border with Pakistan not India.
“When the erstwhile Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan, Pakistan was not taken on board, but later it withdrew from Afghanistan, Pakistan had to face its consequences,” he said.
Then came the issue of Osama bin Laden and this time again wreckage was dumped on Pakistan, he said. “We considered the people of Afghanistan as our brothers, we took care of more than 5 million Afghan refugees, the children of Afghan refugees studied in Pakistan and became engineers, doctors and athletes,” he said.
He said that Afghanistan’s cricket team was trained by Pakistan. He said that the situation inside Afghanistan could be improved by the people of Afghanistan and not Pakistan.
The Afghan government and various factions have to sit together and find a solution to the problem. Pakistan has persuaded the Afghan Taliban to negotiate with the United States and sit on the table with Afghan regime. He appealed to the leaders of Afghanistan to think beyond themselves.
He said that if there is peace in Afghanistan then the economy of the whole region will change. He said that a train service from Tashkent to Karachi via Kabul was being planned and a truck system also in the pipeline but peace was a prerequisite. “There is no consensus on the constitution in Afghanistan. Unless there is a consensus on the constitution in Afghanistan, there can be no peace,” he said.
The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan understands Pakhtun traditions very well. The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan paid attention to the welfare of the tribal people and Rs. 54 billion have been earmarked in this budget for the development of merged districts of Pakhtunkhwa.
The minister for information said that Afghanistan’s good relations with Pakistan were important for its economic progress. He said that the Afghan people share religion, and culture with the people of Pakistan and not with Indians.
“We have fenced off 90 per cent of the border with Afghanistan,” he said, adding that “The blood of the Afghan people is as sacred as the blood of the people of Pakistan. We want to see peace in Afghanistan like peace in Pakistan. The children of Afghanistan are our own children and we are striving for peace there “he said.
Fawad stated that India wants to have its own terrorist network in Afghanistan, if Afghanistan becomes a peaceful place, India’s terrorist network will be doomed. He said that Pakistan wants peace, economic prosperity and stability in Afghanistan as it will also benefit as both countries were bound in a close relationship.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain opined that instability would be created in Afghanistan if a government was formed at gunpoint. He said the Interior Ministry has set up a committee to look into the issue of Afghan refugees.
He said that several terrorist networks of India had been unearthed in Balochistan. The minister said that the government would negotiate with disgruntled people in the province.
Replying to a question, the federal minister said that elections were being held in Azad Kashmir on a total of 45 constituencies, and PPP had fielded its candidates on only 8 and PML-N was contesting on only 15 seats. He said as these two parties do not have enough candidates they were crying hoarse and levelling allegations of rigging.
He said that the manner in which Prime Minister Imran Khan raised the issue of Kashmir at the international forums was unprecedented and if there was any ambassador of Kashmiris in the world today, it was Imran Khan.
To a question he said there was no plan in consideration to make Kashmir a province inside Pakistan and Maryam Nawaz was speaking Modi’s language.
He said that Kashmiris had the right to decide about their own future.
Fawad Hussain said that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto had always done politics in Pakistan whereas Asif Ali Zardari has turned the PPP into a nationalist party of Sindh.
The minister said that the politics of PDM has nothing to do with ideology as Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s politics was based on the students of madrassas, and the failure of PDM was the outcome of his leadership. The PDM is pursuing a policy of self-interest, he remarked.
He said that opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif sent Rs 25 billion out of the country through Hundi, opened fake accounts in the name of employees of Ramzan Sugar Mills and Al Hudabia Sugar Mills.
He said Shahbaz Sharif was summoned by the FIA for interrogation, not harassment as he has claimed.
“We want to build a country where the rich and the poor have equal justice,” he said.