The Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry on Friday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan did not attend the military and intelligence leadership’s briefing on national security, Afghanistan and Kashmir to parliamentary leaders, to accommodate the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif.
“The prime minister was scheduled to attend the national security huddle, but the opposition leader [Shahbaz Sharif] had conveyed to the speaker that if [Prime Minister Imran Khan] came to the briefing, he would not attend,” Fawad said.
Reiterating points discussed in the meeting a day earlier, the information minister said that the government hopes and prays for a peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan.
“We are pushing for negotiations in Afghanistan,” he said.
“There are three million Afghan nationals in Pakistan — if another three million are pushed in, it will put a lot of pressure on our economy,” he said.
“It won’t be so easy for the Taliban to take over the government,” Chaudhry said on the prospects for peace in the war-torn neighbour. “We want the Afghan Taliban and the Ghani government to negotiate [a way out].”
“We are only concerned when India uses Afghan territories against us,” he added. “[Meanwhile, we will continue to try and mediate between the Afghan Taliban and the Ghani government.”
