Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday dismissed the intuition that Pakistan is behind the current unstable situation in Afghanistan. At a news conference, he told the reporters that no one can make Pakistan a scapegoat and instead of blaming Pakistan, the International Community should focus on where all the money went, which was spent on Afghanistan.
As Afghan Taliban has taken over major cities including eight provincial capitals in the last few days, the situation in Afghanistan has worsened. Afghanistan and others are blaming Pakistan for this deteriorated situation, particularly using the Taliban as a weapon to bring the government of their choice to Kabul.
He highlighted the issues of governance and meltdown of Afghan forces in front of the Taliban despite the money that has been spent on Afghan forces by the United States.
He added that Pakistan always supported a political solution to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and was a major stakeholder in bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table that resulted in an agreement between the two at Doha last year.
Moreover, he said that Pakistan has no favourites in Afghanistan, if there is any political settlement, the credit goes to the Afghan government, and if there is no settlement, the Afghan Government will be responsible for that also. He said that Pakistan always wanted an orderly and responsible withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, but it didn’t happen and the situation deteriorated.
Qureshi also mentioned that India currently holds the Presidency of UNSC, which didn’t invite Pakistan to a debate on the Afghanistan situation. Pakistan should be there as it is the main country that can play its role in bringing peace to the region, he said.
Islamabad considers New Delhi a spoiler and always resisted its intervention in Afghan affairs. This is the reason that India is not included in the Extended Troika which includes Pakistan, China, the US and Russia on Afghanistan issue, which is scheduled to be held on 11 Aug in Doha. Pakistan is hoping for positive outcome.