ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Monday rejected Afghanistan’s “unacceptable” and “frivolous” statement expressing alarm over rising political tensions in the country following protests in Islamabad last week, urging Kabul to focus on its domestic issues instead.
Afghanistan’s foreign ministry expressed alarm on Sunday over the weekend protests by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Islamabad. Hundreds of Khan supporters arrived in the capital on Friday to protest against the government’s proposed constitutional amendments and to demand his release from prison. All major routes leading to Islamabad were blocked with shipping containers while mobile phone services were suspended from Friday to Sunday afternoon as police clashed with Khan supporters.
One police constable was killed while 31 other cops were injured during the clashes, police said, adding that they had rounded up over 870 protesters. Afghanistan’s foreign office expressed alarm over the rising tensions, saying that they could “adversely impact” the region. Kabul had urged Pakistan to address the “legitimate demands of the people” through negotiations and understanding.
“Pakistan categorically rejects the frivolous statement made by spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan yesterday,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson, said in a statement.
“The statement constitutes an unacceptable and deplorable interference in the domestic affairs of Pakistan.”
Baloch said that instead of lecturing Pakistan, Afghanistan should “focus on fixing its own domestic problems” which included granting women and girls the right to education rather than “curtailing their rights through misguided interpretation of religion.”
“The AIG should also deliver on the commitments given to the international community by denying space to terror groups which are seriously threatening peace and security in neighboring countries; and by preventing Afghanistan from becoming once again the center of global terrorism,” she added.
Baloch said Islamabad remains committed to peace, dialogue and cooperation in the region. She said Pakistan expects all states, including Afghanistan, to adhere to “basic norms of responsible international conduct and interstate relations.”
Ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained since the Afghan Taliban seized Kabul in August 2021. Pakistan has suffered a surge in militant attacks carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit in its northwestern province bordering Afghanistan since November 2022.
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for sheltering TTP militants and has urged Kabul to take decisive action against terror outfits it says use Afghan soil to launch attacks against Pakistan. Afghanistan rejects Pakistan’s allegations and has urged its neighboring country to resolve its security challenges domestically.
Tensions between the two countries reached a head in March when Pakistan conducted airstrikes into Afghanistan on what it said were militant targets. Kabul said the airstrikes killed six civilians, warning Islamabad against conducting similar actions in future.
Bilateral relations further soured last year when Islamabad blamed Afghan nationals for being involved in militant activities in Pakistan, before launching a deportation drive against undocumented immigrants in the country that affected mostly Afghan refugees in the country. Since last year, Pakistan has expelled over 700,000 Afghans from the country as part of the deportation drive.
