By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan Thursday refuted media reports suggesting a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Afghan Taliban representatives had been planned in Qatar during his three-day visit which concluded a day ago.
According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit, the visit only focused on bilateral relations between Pakistan and the Gulf state.
“A misconception was created that the prime minister had a plan to hold meeting with Taliban,” Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying during weekly press briefing.
Some media reports quoted unnamed Pakistani officials as saying that Gilani would discuss the Taliban office in Qatar and their talks with the US.
Neither a meeting between Gilani and representatives of Afghan Taliban was held in Qatar nor any such meeting was in schedule, he said.
Gilani’s visit to Doha exclusively focused on bilateral relations with Qatar, though regional situation and peace in Afghanistan were also involved in the meeting between the prime minister and Qatari officials, Basit said.
The American diplomats had briefed Pakistani officials on their contacts with Afghan Taliban, he said but declined to confirm meeting between Taliban and the US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman in Qatar.