US Senator hails Pakistan’s role in troops safe Afghan pullout

ISLAMABAD: US Senator Christopher J Van Hollen has said Pakistan played an important role in the safe withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan.

In an exclusive talk with PTV World, he said there were a lot of uncertainties after the US forces withdrawal and it was neither in Pakistan’s nor in American interest to see chaos in Afghanistan.

“I foresaw an economic opportunity in peace that is both in favour of Afghanistan and its neighbouring states,” Senator Hollen said, adding Pakistan’s influence over Taliban was overrated.

Responding to a question regarding the US insisting Pakistan to “do more” despite all the efforts and sacrifices rendered by the latter, he said there was a limit to which Pakistan could influence.

“Pakistan has already played an important role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. Pakistan’s role in future will influence the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan,” he added.

Senator Hollen said the future of Pak-US relations would primarily rely on the role that Pakistan opts to play in Afghanistan. “People overstate the role of Pakistan in Afghanistan. I don’t think Pakistan can control what will happen in Afghanistan. There are factions, people and parties that have control in Afghanistan,” he added.

Senator Hollen along with his colleague Senator Maria Cantwell had recently worked on “The Pakistan-Afghanistan Economic Development Act”, a bipartisan bill, which calls for the establishment of reconstruction opportunity zones (ROZs) in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s border regions to allow textile and apparel goods from these areas to enter the US duty-free.

Regarding the proposed bill, he said: “This is an important moment. This is why I have encouraged the Biden administration to work with us to make ROZs in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan”.

He added that products from these areas, especially textiles, should have duty-free access to the US, which would be a bigger step in economic development of the region.