ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday that Islamabad had no “bilateral dispute” with Kabul other than terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.

“We do not have any bilateral dispute with Afghanistan except for this one issue. Terrorism emanating from Afghanistan is a major issue. So we need verifiable assurances, commitments that these acts will be stopped,” said FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi during the weekly briefing in Islamabad.

The FO spokesperson also reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding demand for Kabul to take concrete and verifiable actions against those involved in terrorism against Pakistan from the Afghan territory.

During the briefing, the spokesperson clarified that Islamabad “does not wish to be hostile to Afghanistan” and Pakistan’s demand to Afghanistan “is very simple”.

The spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s demand for written assurances from the Afghan Taliban that the neighbouring country’s soil would not be used by Fitna-al-Khawarij — the term the state has designated for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

“And this demand will stand unless we get concrete, verifiable, written assurances from the Afghan side that their soil will not be used. If this terrorism issue is resolved by Afghanistan, we have tremendous potential for improving bilateral relations,“ said Andrabi, adding that the landlocked country could become a hub for regional connectivity.

“The potential of such projects is immense, and it needs to be realised once we have those written commitments on terrorism from Afghanistan. Such commitments from Afghanistan are in the interest of its own country. This is a legal demand and could be fulfilled. This could lead to improvement in all bilateral relations,” the FO spokesperson elaborated.

The FO spokesperson’s statement comes as tensions between Islamabad and Kabul continue, mainly centred on Islamabad’s demand that Kabul take measures to end cross-border terrorism, which remains unfulfilled.

Pakistan, which has accused the Afghan Taliban of harbouring terrorists, carried out cross-border strikes in Afghanistan in October last year, following multiple casualties among its security forces and law enforcement personnel in terror attacks.

After the initial skirmish on Oct 11, multiple others took place along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Meanwhile, strikes by Islamabad also targeted Gul Bahadur group camps in Afghanistan.

Eventually, the two sides came together for dialogue with the mediation of Qatar and Turkey, but the talks failed to bring about any workable solution.

More recently, the military’s spokesperson termed the Afghan Taliban during a press conference on January 6 “the mother organisation” that he said had been harbouring such groups since 2021.

Pak-China-Afghan trilateral

During Thursday’s briefing, the spokesperson also said Islamabad would continue leveraging the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral foreign ministers’ dialogue, which showed the positivity with which Pakistan had approached the issue of Afghanistan.

But, he said, this positivity was “linked to the concrete, verifiable and written assurances from the Afghan side that their soil will not be used by terrorist elements” operating against Pakistan.

Pointing out that the Afghan side was not willing to give the verifiable and written assurances, he said, “Despite that, Pakistan wishes to engage with Afghanistan as diplomatic channels are open“.

“The embassy and consulates are functioning, and routine diplomatic exchanges take place.”