Minister lambasts Sharif for meeting Afghan official in UK
Chaudhry demands audio transcript of the ex-pm’s meeting with Afghan NSA who issued anti-pak remarks; ISI chief, national security adviser likely to visit US to discuss Afghanistan’s situation
Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday criticised Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for meeting Afghan National Security Adviser (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib, saying it “proved his connections with Pakistan’s enemies.”
The minister also demanded to public audio transcripts of Sharif’s meeting with the Afghanistan NSA. He said that PML-N should issue a clarification on it. Earlier in a tweet, Chaudhry said: “Sending Nawaz Sharif abroad was dangerous because such people become helpful in international conspiracies.”
The minister, addressing a press conference alongside Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar in Islamabad, said Sharif’s meeting with Mohib “damaged Islamabad’s security doctrine” as the man had earlier issued anti-pakistan remarks.
In a public speech few months back in eastern Nangarhar province, next to the Pakistani border, Mohib had not only repeated his allegations about Islamabad “not wanting to work with a Pashtun leader in Afghanistan” but called Pakistan a “brothel house.” Islamabad denounced his remarks, saying they “debased all norms of interstate communication.”
Meanwhile, a report quoting diplomatic sources said that the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) director general Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf are likely to visit Washington next week for talks with their American counterparts.
They said Pakistan has a key role in a new US diplomatic offensive aimed at ensuring a peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan.
The effort includes visits by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to New Delhi and Kabul for talks aimed at formulating a regional response to the Afghan crisis.
At a recent briefing in Washington, US State Department’s spokesperson Ned Price said the Biden administration hopes to “see Afghanistan’s neighbours play a constructive, responsible role in bringing about a just and durable solution” to the Afghan conflict.
In the same briefing, he also underlined Pakistan’s role in the peace process, saying: “We understand the crucial role that Pakistan has the potential to play in this regard.”
This would be the second meeting between Moeed Yusuf and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan, who first met in Geneva in March this year.
The icebreaker in Geneva was the first highestlevel physical contact between the two countries since the Biden administration took office.
Secretary Blinken, however, had earlier twice spoken to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa. Similarly, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had also been in touch with Bajwa.
Also during the day, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that Pakistan has moved the Frontier Constabulary (FC), Levies Force and other militias from the front line positions along the Pak-afghan border as the army has started to man those positions.
He said the FC Balochistan and other militias working under the interior ministry had been called back from border patrolling. “Now regular army troops are manning the border ater replacing the paramilitary forces,” the minister said, adding the decision had been made in wake of the volatile situation across the border.
Ahmed said the situation not only demanded containment of the influx of refugees from Afghanistan but also entry of armed army personnel and militants into Pakistan.
“Paramilitary troops including the Frontier Constabulary, Levies, Rangers are deployed at the borders to deal with regular issues including illegal border crossing, smuggling etc,” he said. “However, the current volatile situation (in Afghanistan) demands that regular military troops be deployed along the border.”
Military spokesperson Maj Gen Babar Itikhar too recently told a TV channel that troops were manning the border and the move would help prevent escalation of conflict from the Afghan soil or airspace to the Pakistani side.
Other officials said the most serious challenge in the current scenario was not just the inflow of refugees or any infiltrators in the garb of refugees but the movement of Afghan army personnel or Taliban fighters.