Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at an event in Islamabad on Monday said his government will make the utmost efforts to ensure that there is a reduction in violence and a ceasefire in Afghanistan as Afghan are suffering from the war every day. 

The event titled Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Forum 2020 was also attended by a 17-member Afghan parliamentary delegation led by Wolesi Jirga Speaker Mir Rahman Rahmani.  

Khan said stability in Afghanistan will benefit Pakistan as it wants to connect to Central Asia economically through Afghanistan. He mentioned that lessons should be learned from the past and that the two countries should look to the future and move forward from the past. 

“We see that people are martyred in Afghanistan every day. We get disappointed by seeing this. I am assuring you that we will pay utmost efforts, our government, our army, our intelligence agency, all will do their utmost efforts so that, in a way, violence is reduced in Afghanistan, ceasefire is established, and stability is ensured,” Khan said.  

"After Afghanistan, Pakistan has suffered the most due to the conflict," he said. The past, he said, only has one purpose: people should only learn from it and not live in it. 

He added that his government will look to the future and will learn from the past when it comes to its relations with Afghanistan. 

"So, 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,” Khan said.  

The remarks come as violence has rapidly increased over the last few weeks, with many Afghan civilians and security force members losing their lives daily. The high level of violence will affect the ongoing peace efforts by the Afghan government, analysts said. 

Negotiating teams from the Afghan republic and the Taliban have been in Doha for the last 40 days, but the two sides have not agreed yet on procedural rules to begin the peace negotiations.