- Says Pakistan is supportive of a stable Afghanistan
LONDON, January 24: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said several elements are using Afghan soil to carry out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
“Pakistan believes in non-interference in internal affairs of other countries and wants the others to follow suit. Pakistan is also supportive of a stable Afghanistan”, he said while talking to newsmen in London on return home after attending World Economic Forum in Swiss city of Davos.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan had an agreement with Afghanistan that both the countries would not allow use of their soil against each other.
He said Pakistan is fully abiding by this understanding. However, some elements are active in Afghanistan, who carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. “Steps should be taken to stop cross border attacks.”
“We should not interfere in each other’s affairs. Talks are the way to peace in Afghanistan, and peace in Afghanistan will bring stability in the region”, he said.
For this purpose, he said, a coordinating committee of four countries comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and the United States was making efforts.
He added that the overall regional situation will improve if Afghanistan is peaceful. “We do support peace process in Afghanistan,” he said.
While replying to a question, Nawaz Sharif said though the National Action Plan (NAP) was being implemented swiftly, there was rather slow progress on certain points of the NAP.
Replying to a query regarding his working relationship with the army, he said Pakistan was faced with such a situation that some decisions couldn’t be taken single handedly.
“We can’t make some decisions solely, and we shouldn’t because our religion, too, teaches us to hold consultations,” he said adding that decisions regarding NAP, military courts and the Operation Zarb-e-Azb were made in consultation with all the stakeholders. Expressing Pakistan’s resolve to eliminate terrorism from the region, he said: “We openly said India had provided leads regarding Pathankot attack, and we will share the outcome of investigation once some headway is made”. The Prime Minister said that Pakistan is investigating the allegations of India regarding the Pathankot air base attack. He said a team of Pakistani investigators would visit India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him that New Delhi would extend every kind of cooperation in the investigation. Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan itself became a mediator between Saudi Arabia and Iran. He expressed optimism that the bilateral ties between the two countries will improve soon. “We want to resolve differences between both the brotherly countries peacefully,” he said adding, “I am playing a mediatory role on my own to bring Iran and Saudi Arabia closer.-NNI
