- FO condemns India’s ‘persistent’ ceasefire violations at LoC
ISLAMABAD: Foreign office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria has said the United States considers Pakistan an important country in the region.
While speaking on state television, the spokesperson remarked that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi held important meetings on sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session with high-ranking officials of various countries.
The PM’s meeting with the vice-president of United States was very important, and both the countries want to engage with each other, he said, adding that Pakistan has played a key role in assisting Afghanistan both financially and domestically.
He said that Pakistan had been hosting a huge number of Afghan refugees for decades, which have put a heavy burden on the country’s economy. More than one million Afghan students were studying in Pakistani institutions and many had gone back after getting the education, he said.
Nafees Zakaria said there were no safe havens for terrorists in Pakistan, adding that the country has denied earlier allegations in this regard. Afghanistan is the country where these safe havens existed, he added. He also said that Afghan government did not have its control on its 40 per cent area.
The spokesperson said Indian activities in Afghanistan had been shared with Afghan and US government with proper evidence. Confessional statement of Kulbhushan Jadhav is also an evidence in this regard, he stressed.
Pakistan has been holding high-level meetings with Afghanistan for establishing better relations and moving ahead for resolving issues, he explained.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has condemned persistent violations of the ceasefire agreement by Indian forces as late Friday night the Indian forces resorted to unprovoked firing across the Line of Control (LoC), which resulted in the martyrdom of the junior commissioned officer (JCO) and two civilians.
This was the second ceasefire violation by the Indian forces during the last three days.
On Wednesday, one civilian embraced martyrdom and four others were wounded after Indian forces resorted to unprovoked fire in Nakyal sector in Azad Jammu Kashmir.