ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that Pakistan is ready to commit its troops for deployment in Gaza. He; however, distanced Pakistan from any role to play in disarming Hamas.
Speaking at a news conference here on Saturday, Dar said that Pakistan can resolve the issues with Afghanistan through the use of force. He said that if we can teach India a lesson, then Afghanistan is not a big issue. He; however, refrained from going further and said that Pakistan does not want to go to that extent. He said, “We do not want to break into Afghanistan and kill our brothers.”
Responding to a question, Dar said that the matter of Hamas’ disarmament first came up during a meeting in Riyadh where the Two-State Solution was discussed in detail.
Pakistan demands end to occupation, pathway to independent Palestinian state
He explained, “Our job in Gaza is peace-keeping, not peace enforcement.
We are definitely ready to contribute to the force — the prime minister has already announced that after consultation with the Field Marshal, we will contribute — but this decision cannot be taken until it is decided what the peace force’s mandate and TOR (terms of reference) will be.”
Talking about the current status of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, the foreign minister said that Kabul failed to deliver on its promises, vis a vis, the banned TTP.
He added that during his visit to Afghanistan, he demanded the Taliban’s action against the banned TTP from the Afghan leadership and told Kabul that Islamabad did not want the Afghan soil to be used against Pakistan.
He said that Pakistan fulfilled the promises it made with Kabul during his visit to Afghanistan, but the Taliban did not deliver on their promise to counter terrorism and tackle the TTP.
The foreign minister said that he told Afghanistan that peace is the only wayout. Taliban foreign minister Mullah Muttaqi said that we have sent many TTP people to jail.
We made it clear in the meeting with the Taliban that Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan.
Also, Pakistan wants Afghanistan to develop itself as a stable and prosperous nation, he said.
He said that Pakistan asked Afghanistan to take the TTP away from the Pak-Afghan border.
As a second option, we proposed that Kabul should hand the TTP over to Pakistan, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025