ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Saturday informed the Senate that Pakistan remains committed to resolving all issues through dialogue with Afghanistan.
However, he said negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have suffered delays due to lack of written assurances from the Afghan side.
Responding to the points raised by Mashal Azam in the Senate, he said the government fully supports the ongoing peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “This government has always believed that all outstanding issues with Afghanistan must be resolved through negotiations,” he said.
However, he said that despite the Taliban regime’s verbal acknowledgments about the presence of TTP safe havens, the refusal to provide written assurances had resulted in the current deadlock in talks.
Chaudhry said Pakistan will continue to pursue diplomatic channels to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region.
The Taliban regime maintained its ceasefire with Pakistan on Saturday despite the failure of its latest talks. The two sides met in Türkiye on Thursday to finalize a truce agreed on Oct. 19 in Qatar following deadly clashes between the South Asian neighbors.
Both have remained tight-lipped about the content of the discussions, which are known to have only addressed long-standing security issues.
Later, at a press conference, Mujahid stressed that the ceasefire “will hold.” “There is no problem with the ceasefire previously agreed with Pakistan, it will remain,” he said. Neither Islamabad nor the mediators immediately commented on the announcement that the talks had failed.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had earlier hinted that negotiations in Turkey were failing, saying the onus was on Afghanistan to deliver on promises to crack down on terrorism, “which have so far failed.” “Pakistan will continue to exercise all necessary options to safeguard the security of its people and its sovereignty,” he wrote.
Referring to a precedent from 2018, when Nawaz Sharif had signed Senate election tickets as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president, he said Pakistan’s Supreme Court later ruled that a convicted person could not cast party tickets, leading to the cancellation of those nominations and the election of candidates as independent members.
Therefore, it is misleading and undemocratic to claim that constitutional amendments can only be made with the consent of a convicted person. “The authority to amend the Constitution rests solely with parliament – the Senate and the National Assembly – by a two-thirds majority,” he said.
