Pakistan should respect will of Afghan people: Maryam

ISLAMABAD: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on Wednesday that Pakistan must accept the will of the Afghan people and refrain from imposing its decision on Afghanistan.

She made this statement in response to a query from a journalist asking whether Pakistan should recognise the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. The Taliban announced their government on Tuesday, weeks after they swept to power, appointing Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund - a senior minister during the Taliban's reign in the 1990s - as acting prime minister.

Talking to media in Islamabad today, Maryam suggested that Pakistan collaborate with the international community for rehabilitating people and rebuilding infrastructure in the war-torn country. The PML-N leader said Afghanistan was a sovereign country and insisted that Pakistan must not interfere in the internal matters of the neighbouring country. On the local front, Maryam accused the PTI government of suppressing rival political parties, saying "the game of targeting your opponents has to stop at some point," adding that the government's strategy now appeared to be dying down.

She also hinted at filing a new petition in a court [in connection with the Avenfield apartment reference], which, she said, will expose "actual grounds" of the case. Refusing to divulge details of the prospective petition, Maryam said her lawyers were preparing the plea which would be substantial in proceeding with the case. "If the issues highlighted in the plea I am going to file are not taken into consideration, then I will feel the justice is not served." She also explained that her lawyer Amjad Pervez recused from the case because of his health condition after he had contracted Covid-19. "I told him to contest my case, and until he recuperates, I will arrange another counsel for my case," she said.