ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that Pakistan is a responsible Country and fully capable of taking care of its national security and coming up with international expectations.
Talking to the media in Islamabad on Monday, the minister said that Pakistan has made history in facilitating the peace process in Afghanistan.
Sheikh Rashid said that the world should also not forget that Pakistan has rendered around 80,000 lives in the fight against terrorism.
The interior minister said that the Pakistan army is present along the border with Afghanistan to defend every inch of the motherland. He said that around 2,690 kilometers of the Pak-Afghan frontier have been fenced.
Regarding any possible influx of people from Afghanistan, the minister said that we have made arrangements to accommodate 3,000 people in Islamabad only. He said that any person of any nationality, who comes to Pakistan from Afghanistan, will be granted a transit visa of 21 days.
To a question, he said that so far 1,627 people have come through the air route while over 2,100 people arrived through the land route at Torkham. He said that we were expecting a huge refugee influx from Afghanistan but not a single person came to Pakistan as a refugee.
Replying to another question, the minister made it clear that all Pakistanis have been evacuated from Afghanistan and only 30 to 40 people are there who themselves do not want their repatriation.
The interior minister also said that the Taliban have assured to not let Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) use Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan.
