Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar recently confessed that her country serves as the Taliban’s “spokesperson.” Embarrassing Pakistan while in an exclusive conversation with Pakistani media outlet Geo News on Saturday, she admitted that Islamabad often advocates for Afghanistan on global forums.
As soon as Khar realised her mistake, she quickly added that the Shehbaz Sharif-led administration had favoured dialogue with the Taliban administration because Pakistan would be forced to face the consequences of poverty, hunger and terrorism in Afghanistan.
MoS for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, said, “I won’t have any room if the number of people killed along the Pakistani border escalates. We don’t pursue diplomacy by instructing others what to do. We’re expressing our own perspectives. Our view is not the Western view. We don’t want such conditions to prevail in Afghanistan. In a way, we end up becoming their (Taliban) spokesperson. It is Muttaqi (Amir Khan Muttaqi, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Taliban government) Sahab’s job, not ours, to serve as Afghanistan’s spokesperson. There should be clarity on this.”
Hina Rabbani Khar admits how the Balakot Airstrikes continue to haunt Pakistan
Hina Rabbani Khar also stated that Islamabad cannot cooperate with a “changed” India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose administration differs from the previous Manmohan Singh-led “secular” UPA regime. Khar pointed to the Balakot airstrikes in 2019 and claimed that Modi had sent Pakistan multiple messages, one of which was the ‘unprecedented’ airstrike within Pakistan. When the Narendra Modi government stripped the former J&K state of its special status on August 5, 2019, the deputy foreign minister of Pakistan sought that the decision is overturned.
Khar also claimed that the Modi government tried to bring Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with the intention to strip Indian Muslims of their citizenship. However, the truth is that the CAA has absolutely nothing to do with Indian citizens irrespective of their religion in any way. The Indian citizens enjoy fundamental rights imparted to them by the Constitution of India. No law, not even the CAA, has the authority to restrict or in any manner take away their fundamental rights.
CAA holds relevance solely to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian immigrants who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan prior to December 31, 2014, because of religious persecution. It does not apply to any other immigrants, including Muslims who have migrated to India from any country, including these three.
Role of Pakistan in the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan
Reportedly, Ex-ISI chief Faiz Hameed had a significant role in the formation of the interim Afghan Cabinet led by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund. This was demonstrated by Hameed’s frequent visits to Kabul following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Pakistani military’s drones and helicopters supported the terrorist group in capturing Afghanistan’s Panjshir region from the National Resistance Front. Additionally, it was reported that the Pakistan military favoured the Haqqani network, whose senior leaders have gained positions in the government.
Pakistan has frequently urged other countries to send financial aid to Afghanistan despite human rights violations. However, the relationship between the neighbours deteriorated due to the Afghan Taliban’s inability to rein in the TTP’s activities and the assassination of Al-Qaeda commander Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. During his speech to the UN General Assembly, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raised alarm about the presence of banned groups on Afghan land, which the Taliban denied.
