Pakistan President’s Spokesman Says Taliban Have No Right to Lecture on Democracy
Murtaza Solangi, spokesman for Pakistan’s president, responding to remarks by Taliban officials on democracy in Pakistan, said the group had no qualification to “lecture on democracy” to Islamabad and said the Taliban administration had come to power through “suicide attacks and explosions.”
Solangi said the Taliban administration took control of Afghanistan after years of “bombings, attacks with explosives and suicide attacks” and is now, despite that record, “lecturing” Pakistan on democracy.
He also accused the Taliban administration of violating its commitments under the Doha agreement and restricting the basic freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan. According to him, the group continues to harass and persecute ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan.
The spokesman for Pakistan’s president further said: “This is a huge contradiction; a regime that derives its legitimacy from the gun dares to question the democratic credentials of a country shaped by the will of millions of its citizens.”
The statement came after Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister, said on Monday at the Moscow Format meeting that the disputes between Kabul and Islamabad could be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy; however, Pakistan, he said, had chosen the “language of force” instead of political understanding.
