QUETTA: Pakistan Dem­o­cratic Movement president Maulana Fazlur Rehman has urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to avoid confrontation and war-like situation to foil the nefarious designs of the United States which wanted to pit them against each other on the issue of Durand Line.

Speaking at a public meeting in the border town of Chaman on Tuesday, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said the US wanted that Pakistan and Afghanistan should not remain friends.

Hundreds of security personnel were deployed in and around the venue of public meeting in view of terror threat.

Maulana Fazl said: “If Pakistan and Taliban governments indulged in fighting it would be the success of Americans who left Afghanistan with the issue of Durand Line unresolved.

“If anyone is a friend of Pakistan, it is the Afghan Taliban,” he said, adding that Afghan Taliban were the real friends of Pakistan. He said the countries could have different stands on the border issue but it could be resolved through negotiations.

He said that under a pre-planned conspiracy, the United Kingdom had also left the Subcontinent without resolving Kashmir and other issues.

Maulana Fazl criticised the present government and said its wrong polices were pushing the country to economic disaster. He said the federal government was doing legislation on the directives of the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions.

He said the autonomy of the State Bank of Pakistan had been compromised and its control handed over to other institutions sitting aboard.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022