Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul “failed to bring about any workable solution”.
He made the remarks in a post on social media platform X, saying that Pakistan had repeatedly engaged with the Afghan Taliban regarding “persistent cross-border terrorism by Indian-abetted Fitna al Khwarij and Indian proxy Fitna al Hindustan”.
“The Afghan Taliban regime have been asked time and again to fulfil their written commitments to Pakistan and to the international community in [the] Doha Agreement. However, Pakistan’s fervent efforts proved futile due to Afghan Taliban regime’s unabated support to anti-Pakistan terrorists,” he said.
“Since the Taliban regime bears no responsibility towards the people of Afghanistan and thrives on war economy, it desires to drag and mire Afghan people into a needless war,” he said.
The minister asserted that Pakistan had always desired, advocated and sacrificed for the peace and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan.
“In the same spirit, Pakistan has held countless rounds of talks and parleys with the Afghan Taliban regime but unfortunately they have always remained indifferent to Pakistan’s losses. Sadly, after sustaining such huge losses of men and material for four long years, Pakistan’s patience has run its course,” he said.
He said that in an effort to “give peace a chance” and at the request of Qatar and Turkiye, Pakistan engaged with the Afghan Taliban earlier in Doha and then in Istanbul on a single-point agenda — soliciting action by the Afghan Taliban to prevent the use of Afghan soil by these terrorist organisations as training-cum-logistic base and jump off point for terrorist activities in Pakistan.
He thanked Qatar and Turkiye for facilitating this dialogue and their efforts in convincing Kabul to “desist from the use of terror proxies as leverage against Pakistan”, but said that the neighbouring country repeatedly deviated from the core issue.
“Over the last four days of dialogue, the Afghan Taliban delegation repeatedly agreed to Pakistan’s logical and legitimate demand for credible and decisive action against [militant] organisations and terrorists.
“Sufficient and irrefutable evidence was provided by Pakistan which was acknowledged by Afghan Taliban and the hosts, however, regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurance,” the minister said.
“The Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue, evading the key point upon which the dialogue process was initiated. Instead of accepting any responsibility, the Afghan Taliban resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses. The dialogue thus failed to bring about any workable solution,” he said.
More to follow