Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday asked the world to help in capacity building of the Afghan interim government to take on threats of extremism and terrorism.
He expressed the statement while participating in a panel discussion at Munich Security Conference in Germany.
The minister said that the world wanted the Afghan interim administration to live up to its commitments and obligations in areas like all-inclusive government, women’s education, and tackling potential threats of terrorism from terrorist groups like TTP, Daesh, and Al Qaeda.
Pakistan and Afghan Interim Government
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that if this problem was not taken seriously, the terrorist organization could carry out terrorist activities from the war-hit Afghanistan as had been observed recently from the terror attacks in Pakistan.
He was of the view that the interim government of Afghanistan neither had a standing army, a border force, or a counter-terrorism force nor have the ability.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister said that the international community should convince the Afghan interim rulers to take on the threat of terrorism. He said that terrorism not only posed a threat to immediate neighbors of Afghanistan but also to Western countries.
Islamabad had helped Kabul in the past and would continue to do so as Pakistan had hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees in the country, he added. He said that the world could not wash its hands and turn away from war-hit Afghanistan.
He emphasized that the international community should continue its humanitarian assistance, unfreeze the assets of Afghanistan and engage with the Afghan rulers, women, and society.
Bilawal Bhutto reiterated that a peaceful Afghanistan was significant for regional stability, adding the international community should play its role in this regard.
He further said that economic activities in Afghanistan were a must for stability and peace and would assist the interim Afghan government to run the affairs of the country.
