Afghanistan being sovereign state must take decisions indigenously to achieve peace: Shehryar Afridi     

BHURBAN: Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Shehryar Khan Afridi on Saturday said that Afghanistan was an independent and sovereign state and its leadership may take all decisions without any external intervention to achieve lasting peace under Afghan peace process.

Addressing culminating session of the day-long conference on Afghan Peace Process, organised by Lahore Center for Peace and Research, the SAFRON Minister referring to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan said, Afghans would resolve all their differences indigenously and without any external intervention.

Afridi said that Pakistan's civil and military leadership is united for Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace dialogue as peaceful Afghanistan is interlinked to peace in the region and beyond. The Minister said this event is going to play a key role in forging peace which in turn would help achieve development and progress in Afghanistan besides the entire region.

"We are striving for restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan. If western countries could evolve peace and develop together, why we the Muslims who are followers of one God can't stand united and defeat enemy designs," he said.

Afridi said that Islam teaches to treat everyone equally irrespective of religious or other differences. "Today, over 70 million people are displaced and majority among refugees today is Muslims. Just because we are fighting with each other," he said. The Minister said that the entire world was indifferent towards Syrian refugees until and unless a body of a child on a coast was found.

"Pakistan hosted Afghan refugees for 40 years following Sunnah of Holy Prophet. Though we suffered heavily due to terrorism, weaponization, drugs mafia and other ills but Pakistan never turned its back on Afghan Refugeee." Earlier in the day, Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi had inaugurated the moot with the pledge that Pakistan would make sincere efforts to let her neighbor achieve lasting peace.