QUETTA: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai has said that Pakistan should improve its relations with Afghanistan to save itself from any destruction in view of US President Donald Trump’s remarks about Pakistan.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, he advised the government to talk to President Trump with the reference of what he was talking.

Mr Achakzai said: “If we had committed any mistake, we would have to compensate it.”

He said that the United States had been hurling threats at Iran for 30 years but Iran had taken no wrong step though it was responding to US leadership in a tit-for-tat style.

Advises Islamabad to open talks with Trump

“Still we have time to establish friendship with Afghanistan to save the country from the destruction that may be brought about by the US,” the PkMAP chairman said, and stressed the need for having good relations with all neighbouring countries without which Pakistan could not progress.

He said that he and his party believed in democracy and Pakistan could be made the world’s best country if “we run it democratically and in right direction”. Mr Achakzai warned that the country was passing through a critical situation and asked the political parties “to behave” while realising the sensitivity of the situation.

He also talked about his stand on the Federally Administered Tribal Areas’ merger with Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa and said that in the present situation the country was facing, the issue of Fata’s merger should not be touched in the larger interest of the country.

“The future of Fata should be decided according to the will and desire of the tribal people,” he said.

About the proposal to deweaponise the citizenry, he said that since law and order situation was not good in the country, the government should not disarm common people. “The situation would further worsen if people are disarmed,” he cautioned.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018