Information Minister Attaullah Tarar addressing a seminar in Islamabad. Photo: Screengrab
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s desire for peace should not be misconstrued as weakness, warning that Islamabad would respond to any attempt to disrupt peace in the country.
“Any attempt from Afghanistan to disrupt peace in Pakistan, these attempts to destabilise Pakistan have been responded to and shall be responded to,” said Tarar while addressing a seminar titled “Afghan Predicament and the Trajectory to Peace” in Islamabad.
Tarar said Pakistan and Afghanistan were neighbours and would remain neighbours, with links and connections between the two countries.
“Pakistan believes in peace, Pakistan has always believed in peace,” Tarar said, adding that Pakistan believed in peaceful coexistence.
He said Pakistan had made various attempts to ensure negotiations were held, as every problem could be resolved through negotiations and talks, saying various high-level delegations had travelled from Pakistan to Afghanistan to find a solution and ensure peaceful coexistence between the two countries.
“The Afghan interim government needs to move out of its militant mindset into a mindset of a statesman or a state,” he said, adding that, currently, the problems that existed were due to this “militant mindset”.
Tarar said Afghanistan had “great potential” for trade linkages and that peace could create an environment in which trade routes could be established from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
He said such routes could allow the landlocked Central Asian states to route their goods towards warm waters, adding that “the only problem that exists is violent extremism and militancy”.
The minister said there were still safe havens of terrorists and members of internationally proscribed organisations in Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan had sought through talks to highlight the issue and stressed that peace had to be achieved through a viable and sustainable model and dialogue.
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Tarar also referred to Afghanistan’s youthful population and said a large number of women were excluded from the workforce because of a mindset that did not allow certain members of the population to contribute to economic progress.
He said fundamental rights were denied to certain segments of Afghan society based on what he described as a “self-created ideology of Islam”.
“This brand of Islam which is trying to be imposed is not the true ideology of Islam,” Tarar said, adding that peaceful coexistence required accepting and acknowledging the principle of “live and let live”.
The minister said Pakistan had continued to engage in dialogue and negotiations and had tried to convey that “only peace can lead to prosperity”.
He said there appeared to be a disconnect between the people of Afghanistan and the interim Afghan government, adding that no Afghan citizen wanted disruption in peace or instability.
“Every citizen wants to prosper, every citizen wants to see economic prosperity, every citizen wants to raise his or her standard of living,” Tarar said.
He said there were “two forms of denial” in Afghanistan, including denial of the problem of terrorism and safe havens, as well as denial of basic rights for the Afghan population.
Tarar said the disconnect between the government and citizens had led to problems within Afghanistan, where people were raising their voices for change.
He said Afghans deserved an environment in which they could exercise their basic rights, including the right to education, assembly, association, peaceful coexistence and economic freedom.
“Sooner or later, the interim Afghan government will have to come to a conclusion that they will need to move out of this mindset and work for the betterment of the people of their country,” he said.
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Tarar said peace in the region could boost trade and attract investment, adding that the trade route to Karachi and Gwadar, which he said had long been desired by Central Asian states, could become a reality.
He said there was a desire in the region to achieve peace and boost trade, adding that there was consensus on the point.
“The only problem remains peace in Afghanistan and that can only be achieved once the interim Afghan government understands this problem and with good intentions tries to find a solution,” Tarar said.
The minister said the people of Afghanistan deserved a better and prosperous future and that achieving it required consensus within Afghanistan, with people being given a voice to choose how they wanted their future to be.
