Pakistan postpones Afghan peace conference on Ghani’s request

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan-sponsored three-day Afghanistan conclave that was scheduled to be held tomorrow (Saturday) has been postponed following the request of deferment of the summit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Local news channel reported that the Afghanistan conclave has been put off on the request of Afghan President Ghani.

The three-day summit was to be hosted by Pakistan. President Ghani during his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in Tashkent requested to postpone the summit.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan asked Afghanistan to consider Pakistan as a ‘partner of peace’ rather than blaming it for the ongoing unrest, which he said was the ‘outcome of using a military solution by the United States instead of a political one’.

“Blaming Pakistan for what is going on in Afghanistan is extremely unfair…Peace in Afghanistan is our foremost priority,” the prime minister said, in response to the speech of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the conference on ‘Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity, challenges and opportunities’ held at Congress Centre.

Rejecting the assertions of President Ghani made against Pakistan for “not supporting peace”, the prime minister categorically stated that Pakistan did not want turmoil in its neighbourhood because peace was in its own interest.

“Mr Ghani, I want to make it clear to you that Pakistan will be the last country to think about supporting turmoil and unrest in Afghanistan,” he said.