Pakistan's High Commissioner in London Moazzam Ahmad Khan has called on the international community to avoid the mistake of abandoning Afghanistan and adopt a pragmatic approach of sustain engagement.

On behalf of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking at the virtual annual meeting of  Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers, he said Pakistan not only continued to host over four million Afghan refugees, but also suffered 80,000 casualties and economic losses of 150 billion dollars due to conflict in Afghanistan.

The High Commissioner regretted that a state in South Asia continued to systemically target minorities, engineer illegal demographic change in disputed territories and stoke regional tensions to secure electoral gains.

He called on the Commonwealth to play its role in outlawing willful provocations and incitement to hate and violence.