ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday reiterated that there was no military solution to the Afghan issue.
In an in-camera briefing to a special committee on foreign affairs, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had already made it clear that use of force was no option if the world was serious about resolving the Afghan issue. The minister also briefed the committee about his recent meeting with a delegation of Afghan Taliban, which was here on the special invitation of the minister to discuss issues impeding the start of the intra-Afghan dialogue for ending the 19-year-old conflict in the country.
He said that in the meeting with the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar, the director of the political office and Taliban's deputy emir responsible for political affairs, recent developments in Afghanistan's peace process were discussed in detail.
A Taliban political team arrived in Pakistan on Monday as efforts appear to be ramping up to get negotiations underway between the Afghan government and the insurgents. The start of the intra-Afghan talks, envisaged under a US-Taliban peace agreement signed in February, was hampered by a series of delays that have frustrated Washington. Some had expected the negotiations to begin earlier this month.
The Taliban delegation, led by their political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, discussed with Pakistan's leaders the "recent developments in Afghanistan's peace process," as well as "relaxation and facilitation of people's movement and trade between the two neighboring countries," tweeted Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban political office.
The foreign minister told the committee that Pakistan would continue to play its mediatory role for peace and stability in Afghanistan, adding the stance of Pakistan had always been, resolving the Afghan issue through talks.
The minister also briefed the panel about Indian atrocities in Indian occupied Kashmir and the diplomatic efforts made to expose the nefarious designs of India before the world. He said Kashmiri people's struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination had taken a new turn with an indigenous political resistance movement picking up in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Qureshi said the occupied region's six political parties rejected Delhi's August 5 move to annex the disputed territory and forged an alliance to wage a joint struggle aimed at reviving the old status of the territory. "This is not something ordinary but an important development as a joint statement issued by these parties bore the signatures of Farooq Abdullah and enjoyed the support of the Congress party, the main opposition party in India," he added.
He said it was a clear message to the Modi government that the Kashmiris had stood up against the illegal steps of August 5, adding India resorted to illegal steps to alter the demographic profile of the disputed territory.
The committee members lauded the efforts made by the minister for raising the Kashmir issue at international forum.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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