Pakistan facilitated peace process: FM

By Asghar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD: Taking Upper House of the Parliament into confidence on US-Taliban peace deal, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday clarified that Pakistan only facilitated the Afghan peace process for ending the decades-old war in the country.
Addressing the Senate session, FM Qureshi said that Islamabad was not a party in the US-Taliban peace deal. He said that the representatives of the US and Taliban had held two sittings on February 29 during which the peace deal had been finalized. The foreign minister said that some elements in Afghanistan and the United States had tried to sabotage the peace process but they failed in their heinous designs.
Earlier on March 1, Afghan peace deal was key development towards peace in the country, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said while addressing a press conference here on Sunday. “In Pakistan’s view this agreement is a key development as the people of Afghanistan want peace after a long war,” he had said and congratulated Taliban as well as the United States over the agreement.