Federal Information Minister Atta Tarar has said that an illegal Taliban government is in place in Afghanistan, adding that the Taliban seized power by force and continue to support terrorists.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the federal minister said Pakistan responded effectively to Afghan aggression and took control of several Afghan posts. He said terrorist training camps operate in Afghanistan and that Afghan soil was used for recent terrorist activities in Pakistan. He added that Afghan nationals were involved in the Islamabad Kachehri and Tarnol attacks, and that Afghan territory was used in the recent suicide attacks in the federal capital.
Tarar said women, children and minorities are not safe in Afghanistan and that Afghan citizens are deprived of basic rights. He said the Taliban’s new criminal code grants legal cover to slavery, violence and coercion against women, and stands in contradiction to the fundamental guarantees of the Cairo Declaration. He added that the code conflicts with Islamic principles of equality and dignity.
The minister further said Afghanistan has the widest gender gap in labour force participation in the world. He said the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions preventing women from working, that women’s representation in decision-making has been eliminated, and that women have been deliberately excluded from political processes.
