ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on media Iftikhar Durrani said on Sunday denied reports of a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan and the visiting Afghan Taliban delegation in Islamabad.
“No such meeting took place between Prime Minister Imran Khan and Afghan Taliban,” Durrani told Arab News and added that the PM’s office would have issued a press release had a meeting like that taken place.
“The visiting delegation of Afghan Taliban met with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the foreign office in Islamabad but there was no meeting with the Prime Minister,” Durrani elaborated.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan on Friday also refuted reports of any meeting between Khan and the Taliban delegation.
“The Taliban delegation didn’t call on the prime minister. All news published and aired in this regard is not true,” she tweeted.
Earlier on Thursday, national and international media widely reported a meeting between PM Khan and Afghan Taliban delegation quoting sources official sources.
A 12-member Taliban delegation visited Islamabad on Wednesday upon the invitation of Pakistan government to mull over the prospects of resumption of stalled peace talks between the United States and Taliban.
On October 3, the visiting delegation of the Taliban led by the group’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other senior officials, including the Inter-Services Intelligence chief.
A statement issued by the foreign office after the meeting quoted Qureshi as saying, “Pakistan hopes that the current paused peace process would be restarted at an early date.”
