KABUL - Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said his notion of establishing an interim government in Afghanistan was a suggestion to ensure transparent polls and stability in Afghanistan.
Addressing a public gathering in Jumrud, a district of Khybar Pakhtownkhwa province, he said: “Today I want to talk about Afghanistan. Last time I gave a suggestion to Afghanistan from my end, that before you get into elections there, get an interim govt.”
“People got very angry there. I was lashed at and criticized for it,” he said. Folks from Afghanistan, listen to me.
“Remember we consider you as our brothers. I raise my hand and pray to Allah that people of Afghanistan get peace. The kind of devastation that has been going on in Afghanistan since 40 years, forget I am a Pakistani or a Muslim, I am a human being, and I seek peace for them,” Khan said referring to war and problems faced by the people of Afghanistan.
“I said, when elections took place in Pakistan in 1977 and the people did not accept polls, so as a brother I am saying, if you want to bring peace by way of elections then our experience says that you should get the elections done by such an interim government whom they can consider a neutral empire, so that they are capable of accepting their decision,” he said.
“If post the election they don’t accept the elections, then problems would arise, and the loss would be that of the people of Afghanistan and we here in Pakistan would be saddened too. This is why I am giving you a brotherly suggestion. If you don't want to take it, don’t,” he said. (Pajhwok)