Observer Report London/Islamabad
Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif was met by Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and State Minister for Peace Sayed Sadat Naderi.
The National Security Council of Afghanistan gave an update about the meeting on Twitter Saturday, saying that the the Afghan state minister for peace and NSA discussed “matters of mutual interest” with the former Pakistan prime minister.
The officials on both sides agreed that they would both benefit from the “policy of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” the NSCA was quoted as saying by Indian news agency ANI.
They also noted that “strengthening democracy” will put both neighbours on the path towards stability and prosperity.
The audio transcripts of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with a delegation comprising Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib should be made public, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Saturday.
The minister, addressing a press conference alongside Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar in Islamabad, said Nawaz’s meeting with Mohib “damaged Islamabad’s security doctrine” as the man had earlier issued anti-Pakistan remarks.
Fawad said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who has repeatedly inflicted misery on Muslims in the country — has links with the Afghan official who met Nawaz.
“When two or three, who have started following the extremist ideology of Modi, meet Nawaz, then this circle [getting together] raises questions and damages our security doctrine,” he said.
In a public speech two months back in eastern Nangarhar province, next to the Pakistani border, Mohib had not only repeated his allegations about Islamabad “not wanting to work with a Pashtun leader in Afghanistan” but called Pakistan a “brothel house”.
His remarks outraged leaders in Islamabad, who denounced them, saying they “debased all norms of interstate communication”.
Fawad, in Saturday’s briefing, said that he was “surprised” that Nawaz had met the Afghan delegation and contested that Mohib and Afghanistan vice president Amrullah Saleh do not have much stake in their country.
Fawad said that he was “surprised” that Nawaz had met the Afghan delegation and contested that Mohib and Afghanistan vice president Amrullah Saleh do not have much stake in their own country.
“It is Amrullah Saleh’s ploy to defame Pakistan. We have also made it clear that Pakistan would not hold any talks with Afghanistan’s national security adviser,” he said.
He said that when the Afghan official had issued anti-Pakistan remarks in May, Islamabad had cut off ties with his office.
The information minister said the Afghan adviser, after his meeting with Nawaz, had also met “Indian intelligence officials”.
The information minister said he could not repeat the words Mohib had used for Pakistan, while also stressing that Islamabad stood with no select group, but with the people of Afghanistan.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, responding to the criticism, said that she doesn’t think the PTI government can “comprehend” the “essence of diplomacy”.
“Pakistan’s peaceful existence with its neighbours is the very foundation of Nawaz Sharif’s ideology for which he has worked tirelessly,” Maryam wrote on Twitter.
“It is the very essence of diplomacy to talk to everyone, listen to their point of view and convey one’s own message across: something this government doesn’t comprehend and hence is a complete failure on the international front,” said Maryam.
