Govt not involved in dialogue of Afghans in Islamabad, clarifies FO

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said Friday that the government of Pakistan is not hosting the dialogue of Afghan personalities early next week; rather, the events are being organized by a think tank.

Afghans – mostly living in exile and considered anti-Taliban – are scheduled to gather in Islamabad on August 25-26 to discuss the ongoing situation in their home country.

South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University is hosting the dialogue of Afghans on Aug 25 while they would sit with Pakistanis on Aug 26, according to SASSI’s chairperson Dr Maria Sultan.

The event is not against the Taliban and any other party but will discuss peace and stability in the region, she clarified.

The gathering, which would be first in Pakistan in four years since the Taliban takeover, has not been welcomed in Afghanistan.

In a veiled reference to Pakistan, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi criticized the dialogue in his speech on Aug 19 when Afghanistan was celebrating Independence Day.

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The FO spokesperson was asked about the event at his weekly press briefing as it is now a hot topic in the social media.

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“It is a think tank activity and not state sponsored. The government of Pakistan is not hosting this conference and a think tank has invited people. They get the visas. They are allowed to travel. They come and join. The most important thing is it is open,” the spokesman said.

“Once a think tank is doing something, it is open, it is nothing happening behind closed doors. It was a bit sensationalized by some of the social media posts by some figures,” ambassador Shafqat said in a reference to a series of tweets by the US former special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.

My message to Afghan invitees to Islamabad by an ISI front organization: I respect your right to advocate for what you believe. In fact, I share many of your concerns about the current situation in Afghanistan and the current authorities. But the intention of ISI is not to have…

— Zalmay Khalilzad (@realZalmayMK) August 20, 2025

Khalilzad, who asked the invitees to boycott the event, came under fire by the organizer and several invitees including Fawzia Kofi, a former member of the parliament.

“After reading Mr Khalilzad’s recent tweets and seeing how much attention he pays a gatherings of Afghan men and women, I believe the best approach is to invite him to this conference so that he feels included rather than threatened,” Fawzia Kofi wrote on X.

After reading Mr. Khalilzad’s recent tweets and seeing how much attention he pays a gatherings of Afghan men and women, I believe the best approach is to invite him to this conference so that he feels included rather than threatened.

In our country we cant have a meeting of five…

— Fawzia Koofi (@Fawziakoofi77) August 20, 2025

The SASSI chairperson extended invitation to Khalilzad in an X post.

Dear @realZalmayMK — Considering the fact that our conference has unsettled your peace and a people to people interaction is a threat to your world . We cordially invite you as SASSI and WFA to attend the dialogue as a guest of honorhttps://t.co/2Z7CdfEP7T

— Dr Maria Sultan (@DrMariaSultan1) August 20, 2025

Kofi further said they cannot hold a meeting of five people together in Afghanistan, can no longer walk freely in the streets and cannot speak openly in public, and whose civil and political rights have been stripped away because of the mismanagement and ill-intention of people like Kahlilzad.

“It is disheartening to see him (Khalilzad) now trying to delegitimize one of the few hard won spaces that women from Afghanistan have been able to create,” she added.

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Over 30 Afghans, mostly women rights activists, have been invited to the two-day dialogue, according to a list of invitees.

Tahir Khan