Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Tuesday urged political and security actors to pursue talks with Afghanistan, saying enduring peace cannot be achieved without settling outstanding disputes between the two neighbours.
Speaking to reporters in Peshawar, Raja also dismissed suggestions that PTI plans to march on Islamabad, saying the party has no intention of staging such a move. He urged that the oath-taking of the newly elected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Sohail Afridi, should not be delayed, stressing there is no justification to withhold the ceremony. “If not today, then tomorrow it will happen,” Raja said, referring to the swearing-in. He pointed to Afridi’s experience and the support of an experienced team around him.
Raja criticised opposition efforts to destabilise PTI, calling those attempts “childish” and saying they have failed to create a split in the party. He told that the democratic process is moving forward despite political manoeuvring.
On the deteriorating security situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Raja described recent cross-border violence as “regrettable” but argued that closing the frontier is not a viable long-term solution because livelihoods and trade link communities on both sides. He said Pakistan cannot permanently sever ties with Afghanistan and that dialogue is essential to prevent terrorism in both countries. “Until we talk, there can be no lasting peace,” he said.
Raja’s remarks come amid a sharp escalation in cross-border clashes that have prompted heightened troop deployments and temporary closures of major border crossings. Analysts and former diplomats have repeatedly said that diplomatic engagement will be needed alongside security measures to defuse tensions and restore trade and movement.
The PTI leader also addressed recent internal party developments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reiterating that party founder Imran Khan had decided on the provincial leadership changes and that PTI remains focused on governance and security in the province.
