ISLAMABAD - Former Interior Minister and Chairman Institute of Research and Reforms Rehman Malik said yesterday that no one but the incompetence of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s administration was responsible for the collapse of his government. He said that neither Pakistan nor anyone else had started this war in Afghanistan while the United States invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 even though no one from Afghanistan was involved in this tragic incident.  He said that this so-called war on terror lasted for 20 years without any result and success. The greatest loss of this war was to Pakistan in which its 80,000 troops and civilians were martyred and the country's economy was shattered, he said. He said that in this war, everyone learned that the bullet is not the solution to any problem.

In an interview to an Indian channel, where he gave befitting answers to the Indian allegation of Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan, Malik said Pakistan has always wanted peace in Afghanistan and political solution to its internal problems.  

He said that everyone knows that the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan was because of the dialogue between Taliban and US authorities in Qatar and now that the Taliban are back, the international community should give a chance to peace in Afghanistan if the new administration of Taliban can establish. He said that he hopes in twenty years, the Taliban have learned a lot and they will respect the concerns of the international community regarding human rights, women's right to education, and protection of religious minorities.  Senator Rehman Malik said that after Doha Pact, Ashraf Ghani had an opportunity to have formulated a withdrawal strategy in collaboration and consultation with the United States so the current chaos could have been averted timely but sadly, the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan without any strategy and plan.  He said that the Taliban or Daesh were not created by Pakistan, and everybody knows who created Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and then Daesh. 

He said that there are 25,000 Al Qaeda members in Kunar and 8,000 people have also come from Syria and the Indian intelligence agency knows well about it. Senator Rehman Malik said that Islam and Hinduism and all other religions teach peace so he would like to appeal to Prime Minister Modi to stop oppression on Kashmiris and lift the curfew and give them the right to live with peace. He said that he had disagreed with Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement regarding Modi in which he had expressed if Modi becomes the prime minister again, he would resolve all issues between India and Pakistan including Kashmir.  He said that very openly, Prime Minister Modi has said many times that India will teach Pakistan a lesson through Balochistan, and after that many people including Kulbhushan Yadav were caught from Balochistan. He said that it is no more a secret that India also trained people in Sri Lanka and other countries against Pakistan and India's involvement in the recent attack in which 11 Chinese engineers were killed has also come to light. In response to a question, Rehman Malik said that now the Taliban are going to form a government in Afghanistan, the will of the Afghan people   should be prioritised so that there can be long lasting peace in the country, and all other countries should stop their interference.