Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan, in his maiden weekly press briefing on Thursday, rejected reports of the annexation of the Wakhan Corridor and said that it was a part of Afghanistan.
The Wakhan Corridor is a thin, mountainous strip in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province which extends up to the relatively small border with China’s Xinjiang province. It also separates Tajikistan from Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region.
“I have seen this endless speculation. Wakhan is part of Afghan territory. Afghanistan is a neighbouring country. We recognise its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the newly appointed spokesperson said.
“There is no question of Pakistan having designs on one of its neighbours. I deem it speculative and totally erroneous actually.”
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained due to frequent border skirmishes and Islamabad repeatedly demanding Kabul take action against the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegations.
The spokesperson added that the two countries understood the importance of relations and wanted to nurture good ties, however, he reiterated that “the key issue remained terrorists seeking sanctuary on Afghan soil.”
He said both countries were in contact on the matter “through an ongoing multilayered engagement”.
On the Gaza ceasefire, the FO spokesperson called for its immediate and full implementation, adding that he hoped the truce “would lead to a permanent ceasefire and help in scaling up humanitarian assistance”.
A day ago, US and Qatari leaders announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza – starting on Sunday – and a hostage and prisoner exchange, after 15 months of war.
“Indiscriminate use of force by Israeli occupation forces has caused unprecedented loss of lives and property and displacements of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Palestinians,” the spokesperson remarked.
He also reiterated the country’s support for a “just, comprehensive, and durable solution to the Palestinian issue, leading to the establishment of a sovereign State of Palestine”.
Answering a question, the spokesperson said that Pakistan would work to send more humanitarian convoys to Gaza once the relief aid started moving into the territory again after the ceasefire.
Additionally, Khan said that “Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington would attend the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, and the reported invite to Pakistan Peoples of Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto was not routed through the foreign ministry”.
Moreover, the spokesperson expressed deep concern over the “increasingly racist and Islamophobic political and media commentary in the UK aimed at conflating the reprehensible actions of a few individuals with the entire 1.7 million British Pakistani diaspora”.
On positive developments, he said that China and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to deepen the All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership at the Fourth Round of Pakistan-China Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) and the Fifth meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group on International Cooperation and Coordination (JWG-ICC) held in Beijing.
He noted that the two countries were satisfied with the “positive trajectory” of their relations.
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