ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned against the hasty pull out of foreign troops from Afghanistan, terming it as an “unwise” move, before imploring those who have invested in the peace process not to set “unrealistic timelines.”
“All those who have invested in the Afghan peace process should resist the temptation for setting unrealistic timelines. A hasty international withdrawal from Afghanistan would be unwise. We should also guard against regional spoilers who are not invested in peace and see instability in Afghanistan as advantageous for their own geopolitical ends,” PM Khan wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post on Saturday.
He added that the intra-Afghan talks which began between the Taliban and Kabul government negotiators in Doha, Qatar on Sept.12 – for a political solution to end decades of war in Afghanistan – were a “rare moment of hope” for the country and the region.
“We have arrived at a rare moment of hope for Afghanistan and for our region. We also learned that peace and political stability in Afghanistan could not be imposed from the outside through the use of force. Only an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process, which recognizes Afghanistan’s political realities and diversity, could produce a lasting peace,” PM Khan said.
FILE: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan (L) speaks as US President Donald Trump (R) looks on during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, September 23, 2019. (AFP)
Defining Pakistan’s role in the peace talks, he said it has always been at the forefront in facilitating the process, citing the example of a letter written by US President Trump in 2018 seeking Islamabad’s assistance in “helping the US achieve a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan.”
“We had no hesitation in assuring the president that Pakistan would make every effort to facilitate such an outcome — and we did.”
PM Khan added that, just like Washington, Pakistan too does not want to see Afghanistan become a “sanctuary for international terrorism ever again.”
Counting the costs of war, he said that since 9/11, more than 80,000 Pakistani security personnel and civilians had lost their lives in the “largest and most successful fight against terrorism.”
This is even though Pakistan “continues to be the target of attacks launched by externally enabled terrorist groups based in Afghanistan,” he wrote, adding that he hoped for the Afghan government to “control ungoverned spaces inside its territory” to limit attacks against the Afghan people, international coalition forces stationed in Afghanistan, and other countries in the region, including Pakistan.
In his closing comments, PM Khan reiterated Pakistan’s support for the Afghan people in their “quest for a unified, independent and sovereign Afghanistan” which is at “peace with itself and its neighbors.”
Earlier on Friday, during a phone call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, PM Khan urged all Afghan stakeholders to seize the “historic opportunity” and work toward an inclusive and comprehensive political agreement.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan government’s delegation to peace negotiations with the Taliban, is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Monday to discuss measures for the intra-Afghan talks with Pakistani officials. Abdullah’s three-day visit follows an invitation by PM Khan last week.
