Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor says Afghan soil being used against Pakistan

Peshawar: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Sunday said the Afghan soil is being used against Pakistan, asserting that the concern has been raised with the Afghan government multiple times in vain.

Addressing a press conference here at Governor House, he said that the Pakistani government has repeatedly informed the Afghan administration that weapons left behind by the United States are now in the hands of militants. 

Stressing that targeted operations have been taking place in the province for some time, he said that the deteriorating security situation in the southern districts of the province needs to be addressed.

Kundi's comments come as officials from the two nations held talks in Kabul to improve ties strained due to differences over the handling of militancy, transit trade, refugees and other bilateral issues.

Kundi said that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had visited Afghanistan, but there was no follow-up action.  He highlighted the importance of stabilising the security situation to improve state affairs.

Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan deteriorated due to allegations that the Afghan Taliban are not cooperating in controlling Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militants, who are believed to operate from Afghanistan to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.

As Pakistan suffered an intensified onslaught by the TTP rebels, other bilateral issues including transit trade and refugees living in Pakistan propped up to further sour the ties.

At the press conference, Kundi also talked about last week's high-level meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security which the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) refused to attend.

The provincial governor stressed that the presence of opposition parties in the meeting was crucial and claimed that PTI founder Imran Khan was not present there as he was attempting to seek political asylum.

Khan's party boycotted the meeting, demanding the PTI founder's presence at the high-level meeting.

Kundi added that no discussion on an attack or operation against Afghanistan took place in the meeting.  He also criticised the PTI for previously seeking to open a Taliban office in the province, adding that no representative from the PTI government attended the funeral of any person killed in the province.

The governor also spoke about the repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and said that any changes in the policy would be decided by the federal government, adding that he sent a letter to the federal authorities about this.

Pakistan set March 31 as the deadline for about 1.3 million refugees having Afghan Citizen Card holders and those residing illegally to leave voluntarily, after which mass deportations will commence, as per an official warning from the Ministry of Interior.

The Afghan side has urged Pakistan to show leniency and relax the deadline but there is no change in Islamabad's stance.

Kundi said that Pakistan had provided shelter to Afghan refugees for decades, but questioned whether Pakistanis could stay even a single extra day in another country on a visa.