Pakistan government criticises KP province’s direct talks with Afghanistan on terrorism

Islamabad, Sep 13 (PTI) Incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday announced his support for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amin Ali Gandapur after the Pakistan government criticised the latter’s statement about holding dialogue with Afghanistan, calling it a direct attack on the federation.
     Gandapur on Thursday announced to send a delegation to Afghanistan for direct talks with the Taliban to address his government's concerns over terrorism, nearly a week after he sought permission from the Centre to engage in peace negotiations.
     Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the parliament on Thursday that no province has the authority to hold talks with any foreign country and accusing Gandapur of attaching the federation while putting the country’s security at stake.
     Gandapur’s colleague from his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former speaker Asad Qaisar said the chief minister had already started holding talks with the Afghanistan government.
     “This is correct. This is our decision that we want to constitute a grand jirga along with the federal government and political notables,” he said during the debate.
     Meanwhile, on Friday, Khan, the jailed founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said his chief minister was right.
     “Ali Amin is absolutely right,” Khan stated. “They should be beseeching him to go and talk to Afghanistan for the sake of God,” he told reporters in an informal chat with journalists in the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi
     Khan went on to say that “terrorism cannot be eliminated without dialogue” and announced that he as prime minister would have allowed the provincial government to sort out issues with Kabul.
     KP has suffered most due to terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and Gandapur remarks came amid a series of military operations by the Pakistan Army targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
     The Pakistani government has repeatedly accused the TTP of operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, a claim denied by the Afghan Taliban.
     On Thursday, addressing a gathering of lawyers in Peshawar, Gandapur said that he would send a delegation of tribal leaders to Afghanistan for talks.
     He did not give any details. “As chief executive of the provincial government, I will engage in direct negotiations with Afghanistan to resolve the issue through negotiations,” he said.
     There has been an uptick in the incidents of terrorism in Pakistan since the Taliban took over the government in Kabul in 2021.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)