Prime Minister Imran Khan reaffirmed his support for the Afghan-led peace process while speaking at the inauguration of a two-day seminar titled Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Forum 2020. The objective of the seminar is to explore opportunities to boost investment and trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan began in Islamabad on Monday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who attended the event as chief guest, said that Pakistan was the second-most affected country of the 40-year-old on-going conflict in the neighboring country. He reassured the attendees that Pakistan would cooperate and strengthen ties with Kabul regardless of who takes the office:

“It is the Afghan people’s prerogative to elect officials and choose the government."

Expanding on to the troubled past of Afghanistan, the premier said that it is time to analyze the gains and losses of the past and make a strategy for the peaceful future:

“The past serves only one purpose: to teach us. Those who are stuck in the past ruin their future.”

Khan also touched on the subject of growing extremism against Muslims in the region and particularly in India and deliberate efforts to sabotage the peace process in Afghanistan:

"There is a fear in Pakistan that India will use Afghanistan to destabilize the country. But we have decided that we will back the wishes of the people of Afghanistan because the future of this region lies in the relationship and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan."

The Prime minister emphasized that restoration of peace in the region was not just beneficial to Afghans but to Pakistanis as well. He stressed that no country in the world was trying as hard as Pakistan to restore peace in Afghanistan.

“My government’s priority has been to push for dialogue. We first brokered talks between the Taliban and the United States government and now with the Afghan government.”

A 17-member Afghan parliamentary delegation, led by Speaker of Wolsey Jirga Mr Rahmani, arrived in Islamabad to participate in the seminar, titled Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Forum 2020, on the invitation of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, a 17-member Afghan.