Pak vows response to Afghan attempts to disrupt peace

Tarar says Taliban must move out of 'terrorist mindset'

ISLAMABAD:

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that Pakistan's desire for peace should not be misconstrued as weakness, warning that Islamabad would respond to any attempt to disrupt peace in the country.

"Any attempt from Afghanistan to disrupt peace in Pakistan, these attempts to destabilise Pakistan have been responded to and shall be responded to," said Tarar while addressing a seminar titled "Afghan Predicament and the Trajectory to Peace" in Islamabad.

Tarar said Pakistan and Afghanistan were neighbours and would remain neighbours, with links and connections between the two countries.

"Pakistan believes in peace, Pakistan has always believed in peace," Tarar said, adding that Pakistan believed in peaceful coexistence.

He said Pakistan had made various attempts to ensure negotiations were held, as every problem could be resolved through negotiations and talks, saying various high-level delegations had travelled from Pakistan to Afghanistan to find a solution and ensure peaceful coexistence between the two countries.

"The Afghan interim government needs to move out of its militant mindset into a mindset of a statesman or a state," he said, adding that, currently, the problems that existed were due to this "militant mindset".

Tarar said Afghanistan had "great potential" for trade linkages and that peace could create an environment in which trade routes could be established from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan.

He said such routes could allow the landlocked Central Asian states to route their goods towards warm waters, adding that "the only problem that exists is violent extremism and militancy".

The minister said there were still safe havens of terrorists and members of internationally proscribed organisations in Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan had sought through talks to highlight the issue and stressed that peace had to be achieved through a viable and sustainable model and dialogue.

Tarar also referred to Afghanistan's youthful population and said a large number of women were excluded from the workforce because of a mindset that did not allow certain members of the population to contribute to economic progress. He said fundamental rights were denied to certain segments of Afghan society based on what he described as a "self-created ideology of Islam".

"This brand of Islam which is trying to be imposed is not the true ideology of Islam," Tarar said, adding that peaceful coexistence required accepting and acknowledging the principle of "live and let live".

Tarar said Pakistan had continued to engage in dialogue and negotiations and had tried to convey that "only peace can lead to prosperity".