US-Taliban settlement: Pakistan should prepare contingency plan, says Bilawal

WASHINGTON: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said Pakistan should prepare a contingency plan post proposed US-Taliban political settlement in Afghanistan.

Speaking to the Pakistani media here, Bilawal said Pakistan should engage with the US strategically.

"We need to prepare ourselves for contingency. What happens if they pull out immediately, what happens if they pull out in longer term, and what are the potential scenarios that could develop in the event of the US pull out form Afghanistan," he said.

To a question about Pakistan's interest in the wake of US withdrawal, Bilawal insisted that "the decision on Afghanistan, whatever the merits are, whether you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it should happen or not happen now, it’s an important time for Pakistan to engage with the entire process."

The PPP chairman was in the US to attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast. The annual event was hosted by President Donald Trump and dignitaries from within the US and various other countries were in participation.

Bilawal also spoke at a gathering organised by a local think-tank 'United States Institute of Peace', where he expressed his concerns over the current situation in Pakistan. "Today in Pakistan, we are experiencing curtailing of our freedoms, freedom of expression, liberty and justice are increasingly being compromised. We are witnessing censorship, the likes of which we have never before," he told his audience at the USIP event.

"We are already witnessing indigenous organic movements spawning across the country where citizens, tired of being persecuted, have begun to push back. And this is what we need, we need to keep speaking up, we need to keep fighting back, keep challenging the forces that seek to silence us," he said.

On the current economic crisis, he advised the country's policymakers to take advantage of the geo-strategic position and open trade with every country bordering Pakistan. "We have the potential to be the future trade hub of the world. We need to come out of the security state mentality, to unleash our full potential," he said.

Bilawal maintained that Pakistan would bear the repercussions of state-sponsored stifling of dissent and curbing of freedoms of speech, movements for generations.

"We have to contain and banish religious extremism and fanaticism, and curb divisive rhetoric. We must ensure implementation of the National Action Plan that was devised by the consensus of all political parties and stakeholders in fighting militancy. The NAP unfortunately has remained only on paper thus far, and the state has concentrated only on its kinetic part," he said.

"One area that is not talked about much, but which nonetheless is a reality, is civil-military relations in Pakistan," he said adding that the PPP is conscious that this issue has to be addressed for long-term democratic and political stability. He told the audience that for that very reason he decided to be a candidate for chairmanship of the Human Rights Committee of the National Assembly.