World has no option but to engage with Taliban: PM

Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the world community to engage with the new rulers in Afghanistan saying that there is no alternative to Taliban regime in the war-torn country and “no one can replace them right now”.

“Is there a chance that if the Taliban government is squeezed there could be a change for the better? No. So the only alternative we have right now is to work with them [Taliban] and incentivise them for what the world wants – inclusive government, human rights and women rights in particular,” said the premier in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

“And the flip side is that if they [Taliban] are abandoned and if these sanctions stay there and the banking system has no liquidity left because of the sanctions, then the worry is that Afghanistan can go into chaos and a humanitarian crisis will occur.”

PM Imran said Pakistan was facing two major challenges – refugees and terrorist attacks – due to the instability in the neighbouring country.

“From Pakistan’s point of view, we faced two problems. We already have three million Afghan refugees. There were three terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan into Pakistan,” he remarked.

The premier said when the Taliban took over Kabul last year, the flood of refugees came and almost 250,000 Afghans crossed into Pakistan and “amongst them unfortunately were terrorists”.

“There were these Pakistani Taliban which had conducted attacks inside Pakistan, there were the Baloch insurgents who were conducting attacks especially recently and then there was ISIL.

“So our best hope is that a stable Afghanistan will ensure peace and stability of Pakistan,” he said, adding “so therefore, it was in everyone’s interest that the situation in Afghanistan should not descend into chaos”.

He said sooner or later Taliban would have to be recognised.

“So now the world wants some guarantees before they recognise the Taliban. So how far the US is going to push the Taliban to actually conform them to what they expect them to do in terms of human rights.”

PM Imran maintained that Taliban was a very “strong ideological movement” and they represented culture which was completely alien to the western societies.

“So therefore, somewhere there has to be give and take. But, by not recognising them and freezing their accounts and the banking system, only people are going to suffer, and not the Taliban government because no one can replace them right now. So what is happening is that half of the Afghan population, about 20 million people are at a severe risk.”

‘Half of Afghans facing precarious situation’

PM Imran said half of the population in Afghanistan was in a very precarious situation because of hunger, malnutrition, and food shortages.

He said the present situation was already developing into one of the worst humanitarian crises in Afghanistan.

“People in the United States must understand one thing that it is a question of almost 40 million Afghans and half of them are in a very precarious situation.

“There is hunger and the Afghan winter is extremely wicked, ruthless,” he said adding people in Afghanistan were facing winter and there were food shortages and malnutrition.

‘US war on terror bred terrorists’

While discussing the so called War on Terror, PM Imran said the US policies in Afghanistan bred terrorists due to the civilian casualties caused by drone attacks.

“I can tell you from the Pakistan’s example because we had 80,000 people dying after joining the US war on terror.

“We saw that as the war went on it produced more terrorists and I am convinced it was exactly the same to what happened in Afghanistan due to the night raids in Afghanistan, the drone attacks.”

He asked the United States to review the policy of drone attacks.

“We watched what happened there. They were telling people in the United States that the drones were very accurate and they actually got the terrorists. Bombs exploding in villages, how they would only get the terrorists. So there was a lot of collateral damage and I am afraid the public in the United States does not really know the amount of collateral damage.

“We bore the brunt because what happened was, we were considered the collaborators of the US so all the revenge attacks were against the Pakistani soldiers and against the people of Pakistan. There were suicide attacks occurring all over the country and we lost 80,000 people.”

Watch full interview here: