New Delhi, Nov 21 : Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan has drawn flak from speakers at a conference in Lahore, Pajhwok News reported.
The more Pakistan favours the Afghan Taliban, the more strengthened the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and other such groups become. And Pakistan’s support to the Kabul regime does not help the Afghan people in any way”, speakers stated this without mincing words at a session, titled “Chaos in Afghanistan and Talking to Banned Organisations”, at the Asma Jahangir Conference, Dawn reported.
The session —- Chaos in Afghanistan and Talking to Banned Organisations — was attended by Abdullah Khenjani and Lotfullah Najafizada from Afghanistan, who had obtained visas prior to the fall of Kabul.
Former Pakistani senator Afrasiab Khattak, Member National Assembly Mohsin Dawar and Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group were also on the panel.
Addressing the session, Khattak said the Taliban knew how to reward their commanders, However, they did not know how to serve the people, he said, Pajhwok News reported.
Without a proper government system, Afghanistan had become a fenced prison after Pakistan fenced the Durand Line, he remarked.
Pakistan’s Afghan policy was framed by someone other than the prime minister, Khattak alleged, asking Islamabad to stop supporting the Afghan Taliban, the report said.
He called Afghan and Pakistani Taliban two sides of the same coin. The Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan and the Taliban, he insisted, pursued the common agenda of “political Islam”.
Dawar hit out at the Pakistan government for denying visas to Afghan invitees. He said Pakistan was open to militants, but not to real Afghans.
Pakistan’s support to the Afghan Taliban was a source of strength for outlawed outfits like TTP and TLP, the MNA believed, as per the report.
Najafizada linked recent political developments in Afghanistan to a collective failure. He asked the Taliban and the world at large to discuss the future.
There were flaws in the Doha peace talks and the Taliban had no intention of reaching any settlement; he said, adding the previous government had miserably failed to build institutions.(IANS)