KARACHI: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has accused the previous government of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) of adopting an appeasement policy towards the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP), saying that it has created problems for the people of Pakistan.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Mr Bhutto-Zardari stated that the current coalition government has ended the ‘wrong’ approach, which was initiated by the previous [PTI) government.

Earlier this month, the top military and political leadership of the country decided to take to take strict action against all terrorist groups in the country.

In the interview, the foreign minister also reiterated the stance that the international community should engage with the Taliban and to convince them about their promises, despite the ban on women’s education and restrictions imposed by the Afghan Taliban on NGO workers and media.

“The solution is to engage the Afghan government and try to convince them to live up to their promises to the international community whether it is to do with women’s rights or the issue of terrorism”, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023