Former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai on Sunday evening reacted to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks about Afghan politics and the threat of Daesh. Khan claimed several Daesh attacks had been launched from Afghanistan’s border into Pakistan.
On Sunday, Imran Khan at the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting on Afghanistan said Daesh threatens Pakistan from Afghanistan, adding that “We have had attacks from (the) Afghan border, from ISIL, into Pakistan.”
Karzai in reaction said these allegations are not true. He said Daesh from the beginning has been threatening Afghanistan from Pakistan, not the other way around. “These remarks are not true, and are obvious propaganda against Afghanistan,” Karzai said in a statement. “In fact, from the beginning, Afghanistan has been facing Daesh’s threat from Pakistan.”
Regarding the human rights issues which the international community has set as a condition for recognition of the Islamic Emirate, Khan told the assembly that differences between cultures in different parts of the country must be understood before promoting new values.
“The city culture is completely different than the rural culture. Culture in Kabul was always different to rural areas. Just like in Peshawar, it is completely different, the culture, to the district adjoining the Afghanistan border,” he said.
Reacting to Khan’s remarks, especially his point about corruption in Afghanistan in which Karzai served as a president for two terms and an interim period, Karzai said the Pakistan government must stop interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs and stop talking on behalf of Afghanistan at international gatherings. Karzai also said such remarks insult the people of Afghanistan.
“Pakistan’s government should not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and should avoid speaking on behalf of Afghanistan in international forums,” Karzai said.
Khan also said: “Any government that cannot pay the salaries of its civil servants, it is going to collapse,” referring to the current economic challenges in Afghanistan.