Int'l community must help Afghan people: Fawad

Instability in Afghanistan will create space for terrorist groups, the minister reiterates

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhary said on Friday that the international community will have to come forward to help the Afghan people.

Talking to press attaches of foreign embassies in Islamabad, the minister stated that the situation in Afghanistan greatly impacts Pakistan.

“We want an inclusive government in Afghanistan but at the same time, we are also concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crisis there,” Fawad said.

He claimed that global terrorist organisations would benefit from any further deterioration of the situation in the war-ravaged country, adding that “stability in Afghanistan is imperative to deny space to terrorist outfits."

According to Fawad, India has remained involved in the “fake propaganda campaign” against Pakistan. Last month, the minister had said that a European TV channel had exposed fake news by Indian media regarding the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launching an offensive in Panjshir, Afghanistan.

While addressing the press attaches today, Fawad emphasised the need for international efforts to combat the problem of fake news.

Read Taliban recognition unlikely in near future

The minister maintained that there should be a code of conduct for media at the international level to stop fabricated news from spreading on social media against any country.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said that it was crucial for the international community to ‘avoid mistakes’ of the past and pursue positive engagement with the Taliban regime to avert economic collapse and civil war in the country.

Addressing the opening session of the 9th meeting of Troika Plus held in Islamabad, the foreign minister said engagement with Afghanistan was important as nobody wished to see civil war and an economic collapse in Kabul.

“Everyone wants terrorist elements operating inside Afghanistan to be tackled effectively and we all want to prevent a new refugee crisis,” he said.