Stability in Afghanistan only possible through inclusion of all ethnic groups in govt: Fawad

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Monday that Pakistan wants an all-inclusive government in Afghanistan and that the country believes stability in Kabul can only come by including all ethnic groups on board as it is ethnically divided.

His comments came during an interview with the BBC during which he said that in a meeting with former president Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Imran Khan has talked about an inclusive government even before the ongoing situation in Kabul had taken place.

"Our emphasis was on the inclusive government. Unfortunately, if the elections would have been delayed as PM Imran khan suggested earlier and an inclusive government would have been placed, things might be different today," said Fawad. 

Fawad added that Pakistan firmly believes stability in Afghanistan can only be achieved through the inclusion of all ethnic groups in the government due to the ethnic diversity in the country. 

He added that Pakistan is in touch with the regional powers, the United States and the United Kingdom to discuss the Afghanistan issue.

Speaking about Pakistan's sacrifices rendered, Fawad said: "We have lost 80 thousand people and billions of dollars in the economy because of the Afghan war and the reason why Pakistan is conveniently blamed by others’ fault is that the powers who should have heeded to Pakistan’s advice earlier but Pak advise was overlooked and we have paid the price of this conflict.

He said that as far as the future of Afghanistan is concerned, Pakistan has to work together with the regional and international players for an inclusive government.

"We don’t have controlled influence over Taliban but we can bring Taliban’s on the table of talks with the US," he said adding that Pakistan is also capable of taking on the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"We had a problem with the previous Afghan government as at that time India was using the Afghan soil for funding TTP," he said.

The minister further added that Pakistan welcomes the Taliban’s statement of their land not to be used against any country. 

"They have shown the world that Afghanistan will not become the haven for international terrorist organisations. If instability continues in Afghanistan, then hundreds will migrate to Pakistan," he told the publication. That’s one of the reasons we trying our best to avert any instability in Afghanistan."