Afghan government is de facto; it is not legitimate: Caretaker PM

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister Anwar al-Haq Kakar said that the current government in Afghanistan is de facto, “it is not de jure, it is not legitimate”.

Speaking on the recent skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in an interview with a private TV channel he said that Pakistan’s prime responsibility is to protect our borders, and that will be done at any cost.

He said that taking any action inside the boundaries of Afghanistan is not under consideration for now.

“Our air space, digital space and physical space is sacrosanct, and its sanctity would be ensured by our border management, military personnel and air force,” he said.

Kakar added that the current government structure in Afghanistan is not one where a policy formulated at the helm translates down to the forces deployed at the border.

“There are multiple layers of governance structure there. In these layers, we have social and political understanding as well as our intelligence visibility”, he said. He noted that the people living on both sides of the border have social and ethnic bonding with each other, they might have worked together or fought together, and that needs to be kept in focus while dealing with the current situation.

“We have different mechanisms including communication channels with the Afghan government. It is a complex web and we are working with focus on it,” the prime minister said.