'Why do we risk...': Pakistan wants countries to recognise Taliban, miffed with wait-and-watch policy

By Kunal Gaurav

Pakistan’s national security adviser Moeed Yusuf said that the current approach would push the war-torn country towards an economic slump.

Pakistan is miffed with the international community’s wait-and-watch policy on recognising the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s national security adviser Moeed Yusuf said that the current approach would push the war-torn country towards an economic slump, reported Dawn newspaper.

"If the world is interested in this conversation, it needs to happen directly with the new government. For influencing and moulding governance in the way the world wants, it should have a conversation with them. Without engagement that would not be possible," Dawn quoted Yusuf as saying.

While the international community has stepped up humanitarian aid efforts in Afghanistan, it has shown no immediate interest in recognising the Taliban, given the Sunni Pashtun group’s history of gross human rights violation in name of imposing their harsh version of Sharia law. Several countries have said that they will wait and watch the actions of the Taliban, which claim to be different from the last time they ruled Afghanistan.Warning about the consequences of abandoning Afghanistan, Pakistan’s NSA said that a security vacuum could again make the region safe haven for terrorists. “You already know ISIS (the militant Islamic State group) is already present there, Pakistani Taliban are there, Al Qaeda is there. Why do we risk a security vacuum?" he added.Yusuf has been repeatedly calling on countries to engage with the Taliban while warning about either the refugee crisis or terrorism or both. Earlier this month, the security official said that the world needs to constructively engage the Afghan Taliban in order to prevent governance collapse and avert another refugee crisis, reported news agency PTI. "The world must think about the cost of abandonment of Afghanistan," he said at a webinar organised by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS).

Meanwhile, Pakistan, accused of supporting the Taliban during years of insurgency, was proactive in the government formation in Afghanistan. Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed recently met the group’s de-factor leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was later named the deputy prime minister of the provisional government.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-wants-countries-to-recognise-taliban-miffed-with-wait-and-watch-policy-101631788055515.html