'Extremist elements in Afghanistan pose threat to Pakistan': Pak minister

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Monday said that 'extremism in Afghanistan is a threat to Pakistan".

"Women are not allowed to travel alone in Afghanistan, and they cannot go to school as well," Chaudhry said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of a photo exhibition on the life of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Pak-China centre, reported Geo News.

Pakistan is blamed globally for supporting terrorism and helping the Taliban. The federal minister's crocodile tears came a day after the Afghan Taliban said that women seeking to travel long distances should not be offered transport unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.

The guidance, issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also called on all vehicle owners to offer rides only to those women wearing hijabs, reported Geo News.

The guidance, circulated on social media networks, comes weeks after the ministry asked Afghanistan's television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.

The ministry had also called on women TV journalists to wear hijabs while presenting.

Meanwhile, condemning the tragic Sialkot incident, where the Islamist mob accused a Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana of blasphemy and then burnt his dead body, the minister said the entire nation was united after it.