PM Imran Khan warns against ‘spoilers’ in talks with Afghanistan’s Hekmatyar

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday once again warned against the damaging role of spoilers, within and outside Afghanistan.

He was talking to the Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who called on him to discuss the peace process during his three-day official visit.

Besides undermining peace and stability, the prime minister underlined that this could also undermine the peace dividend to be accrued in terms of progress and prosperity of the Afghan people.

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PM Imran expressed best wishes for a successful outcome of the Afghan peace process. He reiterated his longstanding position that there was no military solution to the Afghan conflict and that an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process was the only way forward.

He noted that the intra-Afghan negotiations provided a historic opportunity to the Afghan leadership for establishing lasting peace.

Underlining the positive contribution made by Pakistan towards facilitating the Afghan peace process, the prime minister hoped that the Afghan parties would work to secure an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement.

Referring to the enormous potential in bilateral trade, transit and connectivity between the two countries, the prime minister reaffirmed Afghanistan of Pakistan's full support for reconstruction and economic development and dignified return of Afghan refugees.

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He said Pakistan would continue to facilitate people-to-people exchanges, promote Afghan investments, and enhance programmes for human resource development and capacity-building of Afghans, especially in the education and health sectors.

Hekmatyar appreciated Pakistan’s positive role in facilitating the Afghan peace process and thanked Pakistan for its long-standing contribution to the socio-economic development of Afghanistan and for hosting millions of Afghan refugees for more than four decades.