Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan has voiced party founder Imran Khan’s reservations about deteriorating Pakistan-Afghanistan ties and lamented the government’s “bad” foreign policy.
The new PTI chairman, who was elected both times when the party held its highly contested internal polls, lamented the deterioration of relations between Islamabad and Kabul due to security challenges facing Pakistan’s northwest border.
Speaking to reporters outside Adiala Jail after meeting Khan, Gohar said the situation — which currently engulfed the country with regard to Afghanistan — never happened during PTI’s tenure in government.
Islamabad’s relations with Afghanistan have remained rocky due to increased terrorist attacks in Pakistan, which the country claims are launched from Afghan soil.
Barrister Gohar blamed the current state of affairs on the “bad” foreign policy of the Shehbaz Sharif-led government.
Earlier this week, Pakistani forces conducted intelligence-led operations in Afghanistan’s border areas targeting terrorists involved in launching attacks on Afghan soil, notably the March 16 attack in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, which left hundreds of civilians and police dead .
In a statement after the IBO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FO) said that over the past two years, Pakistan had repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the Interim Afghan Government over the presence of terrorist outfits including the TTP inside Afghanistan.
She said that these terrorists pose a serious threat to Pakistan’s security and consistently use Afghan territory to carry out terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
The politician, who was recently elected as a member of the National Assembly, reiterated his faith in the country’s armed forces, adding that they are strong enough to defend Pakistan.
Commenting on the letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by PTI, the party president said it was written to remind the Washington-based lender about the situation in Pakistan.
He clarified that the protests led outside the IMF headquarters in the United States capital were organized by overseas Pakistanis and that the party did not send anyone from Pakistan to organize them.
