Islamabad: Pakistan today said it was ready for mediation between the Afghan
government and the Taliban as it extended support to Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani's political process in the war-torn country.
Speaking
at the second Kabul Process conference, Ghani yesterday said that his
government was ready to recognise the Taliban as a political group and
offered unconditional talks with the militant group to "save the
country".
The foreign minister also asked Washington to strike a
balance in its policy towards South Asia if it was interested in having a
dialogue between Pakistan and India.
"The US can have an
interest in Pak-India discussions, but before that it should create some
balance in its South Asia policy," he said.
He also talked about
the so-called "institutional interests" in Pakistan and said that
practice of portraying interests of institutions as the greater national
interest "will also be changed soon".
Asserting that Pakistan
will frame its foreign policy keeping in view the national interests,
Asif said, "We will not sacrifice our own interests for the protection
of the interests of the United States."