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Islamabad downplays Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s invitation to Kabul
Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Thursday downplayed Kabul’s invitation to Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), characterizing the gesture as a personal visit.
“That question may be best addressed to the Afghan authorities because we are not aware of any such initiative,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly media briefing while responding to a question about the invitation for the JUI-F chief.
In response to another question, she said: “We do not comment on visits or invitations for private individuals to foreign countries.”
Earlier this week, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), said it had formally extended an invitation to Fazl to visit Kabul. He said that Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman is a religious and political figure who can create mindset in both dimensions.
Baloch clarified that Islamabad’s position on the issue of talks with TTP, an option advocated by the IEA, was “very clear”.
“There are no talks taking place, and there are no talks on the agenda between the State of Pakistan and TTP. We are focusing on the demand that Afghan authorities must take action against TTP elements and rein them in so that the terror threat against Pakistan from the Afghan soil is eliminated,” she said.
She reiterated concerns about possession and use of modern sophisticated arms and weapons by TTP and called for international cooperation for neutralising the threat.
The spokesperson confirmed that Pakistan was in talks with US for enhancement of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism capacity.
Explaining Pakistan’s engagement with the US and other neighbours of Afghanistan on counter-terrorism cooperation, Baloch said: “We have no designs to create difficulties for the people of Afghanistan. Our complete focus is to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan and to work with our Afghan brothers and sisters to ensure that terror threat from Afghanistan does not target Pakistan.”
This comes as IEA has rejected claims of Afghanistan soil being used in attacks against Pakistan and has emphasized that Afghanistan is not responsible for the security failure of Pakistan.