Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry believes it is too soon to comment on the Taliban’s announcement of an interim government in Afghanistan.
Fawad was talking to BBC World shortly after the Taliban announced an interim setup in Kabul on Tuesday.
He said he had learnt of the caretaker setup in Afghanistan on the programme’s intro and so thought it would be too soon to make a comment on it. “I think it would be premature to comment at this time,” he told the BBC anchor.
The BBC anchor then asked for a comment on the presence of ISI chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who has been in Kabul for the last couple of days. She said it is understood that the ISI chief is helping the Taliban shape the new government in Afghanistan.
Before this, the media reported that the CIA chief was in Kabul, then the media reported that the Turkish and Qatari intelligence chiefs were also in Kabul, Chaudhry responded, adding that in the absence of any formal government in Kabul, obviously intelligence agencies will create an alternative framework.
He said Pakistan has “deep issues” with Afghanistan, giving the expansion of Daesh, migration and TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) as some of the examples.
For this reason, he said, Pakistan has to have an informal line of communication.
Afghanistan has no foreign minister, Fawad said and asked if Pakistan was to send its foreign minister, who would he meet?
He said this is the only framework to communicate.
“I will not say that we have no engagement with [the] Taliban. It was Pakistan’s engagement with [the] Taliban that enabled US-Taliban negotiations. It was Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s engagement that enabled and facilitated the evacuation of thousands of people stuck in Kabul,” he said, adding that this engagement is now being appreciated by the world.
“Frankly, its fairytales crafted by the Indian media and put all over social media where they use a video game to demonstrate that Pakistan is helping the attack on Panjshir,” Fawad remarked when asked about the alleged involvement of Pakistan in the attacks on Panjshir.
“When I see this in Afghanistan and some of the Indian media, I feel that we are some supernatural power and we can do everything we want. Countries don’t act like that,” he said.
Chaudhry said that in Afghanistan, the kind of actions attributed to Pakistan by the Indian media are actually inspired from their film industry.
“They create stories. This is how marketing agencies work in India,” he said.
