ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that peace talks with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are internal matter of Pakistan and nobody has the right to interfere in our internal affairs.
On Wednesday, an Afghan official Major General Muhammad Shareef Yaftali said during his visit at a military base in Afghanistan’s Paktia province that Pakistani territory has been used by the Taliban and militants from Pakistan side for actions against Afghanistan.
Yaftali said that Pakistan is the source of sending not only terrorists to the Afghan territory but also weapons. He also said that the ongoing talks between the Pakistani government and the Taliban are the cause of stepped up activities by the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan.
“Talks with TTP are Pakistan’s internal matter. There have been indications that Afghan Government itself may be talking to the Taliban,” the foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in response to the comments by the Afghan official during her weekly media briefing in Islamabad on Thursday.
The FO spokesperson pointed out that Afghan government itself is keen for talks with Taliban.
Aslam welcomed the successful conduct of recent elections in Afghanistan and said that continuation of democracy there is vital for peace and stability in the region.
Pakistan looks forward to resumption of dialogue process with India
The spokesperson further said that Pakistan looks forward to resumption of dialogue process with India for the sake of regional peace as durable peace in the region is linked to resolution of all issues and disputes between the two countries.
“We have a framework with India which has an eight point agenda. This process has been disrupted for the last three years,” she said. “We believe that to have sustainable and durable peace, we need to address all the issues and disputes that stand between Pakistan and India having normal, good neighborly relations and having peace and cooperation in the region.”
“We look forward to the resumption of that process so that people of this region can benefit from economic cooperation and we can focus on our economic development,” the spokesperson added.
In reply to a question that what kind of relations Pakistan will have with India if Narendra Modi wins elections, she said that “We deal with countries. It’s for the people of India to elect whoever they deem fit. We will take it from there.”
The spokesperson further said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been invited by the Iranian leadership, adding that dates of the visit are being sorted out.
“We hope that this visit would take place in the first half of 2014,” Aslam said.
