ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his willingness to work for regional peace with President Ashraf Ghani, following the Afghan leader’s swearing in to a second term on Monday.
“I want to congratulate Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani & look forward to working with him. Pakistan will do everything it possibly can to bring peace and stability in our region,” Khan in said in a Twitter post.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Office reaffirmed in a statement its support for “a peaceful, stable, united, sovereign, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbors.”
It said that the signing of the US-Taliban peace agreement in Doha on Feb. 29 has created “a historic opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and a pathway to intra-Afghan negotiations.”
Pakistan, the statement read, will “continue to facilitate the Afghan peace and reconciliation process” through a comprehensive and inclusive solution that is “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.”
“We hope the Afghan leaders would proceed with wisdom and foresight, eschew blame-games, resolve mutual differences, and unite in the supreme interest of their country,” Foreign Office read, as Afghanistan witnessed two oath-takings on Monday, with Ghani’s rival, Abdullah Abdullah, also announcing himself the country’s new ruler.
While Ghani’s ceremony was taking place at the presidential palace in Kabul, Abdullah held a separate one in an adjacent compound
The two leaders have been sharing power — Ghani as president and Abdullah as chief executive — since 2014.
Afghanistan’s electoral commission last month announced that Ghani had won over 50 percent of September’s presidential vote, but Abdullah rejected the result and declared himself the winner.
