ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani on Thursday agreed to open a new chapter of friendship and cooperation between the two countries based on mutual trust and harmony for the benefit of the two peoples and for advancing the cause of peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
According to an official handout circulated by the country’s foreign office, the two leaders had a one-on-one meeting that was followed by delegation-level talks.
The prime minister affirmed that Pakistan wanted a qualitative transformation in its relations with Afghanistan as part of his vision of a “peaceful neighborhood.” He also said that an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process was the only viable option to end decades-long conflict in Afghanistan, adding that his country supported a result-oriented intra-Afghan dialogue.
The prime minister underscored Pakistan’s respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and its commitment to stand by the Afghan people at this crucial juncture.
The two leaders agreed that enduring peace in Afghanistan would bring rich economic dividends to both countries and reaffirmed their commitment to work together to broaden and deepen bilateral trade, streamline transit trade, and strengthen efforts for connectivity.
“It was recognized that early completion of major energy connectivity projects such as Central Asia-South Asia (CASA 1000) electricity transmission line and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline will bring long-term economic benefits to the countries involved,” said the foreign office statement.
Earlier in the day, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani arrived in Islamabad on a two-day, just days after Islamabad hosted a conference of Afghan tribal and political leaders to discuss ways to end conflict in Afghanistan.
President Ghani was received by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood and other officials at Rawalpindi’s Nur Khan air base during a traditional welcome reception.
This is Ghani’s third visit since 2014 and comes at a time when the United States is engaged in talks with the Taliban and has picked up effort to reach a political settlement to end decades of war in Afghanistan.
“On the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani will be visiting Pakistan on 27-28 June 2019,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in another statement released prior to the visit.
The Afghan president is accompanied by a high-level delegation of ministers, advisers, senior officials and business people.
Ghani is also expected to meet President Dr. Arif Alvi and hold “wide ranging talks” focusing on “strengthening bilateral cooperation in diverse areas – including political, trade, economic, security, peace and reconciliation, education and people-to-people exchanges,” the foreign office said.
The Afghan president will also travel to Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, where he will participate in a business forum attended by representatives from both countries.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News last week, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Atif Mashal said the Kabul government was “cautiously optimistic” that Ghani’s visit would open a new chapter in bilateral relations.
Taliban and US officials have held several rounds of talks since December and say they are close to agreeing a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops and guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on US targets.
But Ghani’s government has been shut out of negotiations by the Taliban’s refusal to deal with what they consider an illegitimate “puppet” regime.
Islamabad says its influence over the Taliban has waned in recent years and that it strongly favors a political settlement to maintain stability in Afghanistan. Afghan officials remain cautious.
US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading the push to broker a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban, has held several rounds of talks with Pakistani officials to smooth the way.
Last week, dozens of Afghan politicians and opposition leaders gathered in Pakistan to discuss ways to achieve peace.
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to strengthen bilateral relations, work for regional peace and stability
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to strengthen bilateral relations, work for regional peace and stability
- PM Khan and Afghan President Ghani agree enduring peace in Afghanistan would bring rich economic dividends to both countries
- Pakistan underscores respect for Afghan sovereignty and territorial integrity
Pakistan’s deputy PM heads to Saudi Arabia for OIC meeting on proposed Palestinian displacement
- The foreign office calls the proposal of uprooting Palestinians from their ancestral homeland ‘immoral’
- Ishaq Dar is expected to reaffirm Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people, their just cause
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar left for Saudi Arabia on Thursday to attend a special Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting focused on the situation in Palestine and the “immoral proposal” to displace its residents from their homeland, the foreign office said in a statement.
Dar, who also holds the diplomatic portfolio, will participate in the OIC foreign ministers’ session, scheduled to be held in Jeddah on Friday.
US President Donald Trump announced a plan to permanently uproot more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza after assuming office, saying his country would turn the area into an international beach resort.
The plan was widely denounced by majority-Muslim nations and global rights organizations, as the US suggested that the Palestinian population could relocate to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
“Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, departed for Saudi Arabia to attend the Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers,” the foreign office announced in a social media post.
“The deteriorating situation in Palestine, resulting from Israeli aggression against Palestinians, the ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the illegal and immoral proposals of displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland [will come under discussion],” it added. “At the conference, the DPM/FM will reaffirm Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their just cause.”
Radio Pakistan reported earlier this week the Pakistani deputy prime minister will advocate for Israel’s full withdrawal from all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and denounce the proposal for further Palestinian displacement.
Dar will also call for the restoration of the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people, including their right to return to their homeland and the establishment of a viable, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Earlier this week, Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza worth $53 billion, which seeks to avoid Palestinian displacement, in contrast to Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday Egypt, in cooperation with Palestinians, had worked on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats to govern Gaza after the Israel-Gaza war ends.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the Arab League’s approval of the Egyptian plan, urging the United Nations to ensure the implementation of its resolutions calling for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Accused Daesh militant handed over to US by Pakistan appears in court over Kabul airport attack
- Mohammad Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport before the suicide bombing
- He has admitted to involvement in other attacks, including one on Moscow City Hall in March 2024
ALEXANDRIA, United States: A Daesh operative who allegedly helped carry out the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared in a Virginia court Wednesday.
Mohammad Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport, where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Justice Department said.
The blast at the Abbey Gate killed at least 170 Afghans as well as 13 US troops who were securing the airport’s perimeter.
Sharifullah appeared in a court in Alexandria, near the US capital Washington, wearing light blue prison garb and a black face mask. He was officially appointed a public defender and provided with an interpreter.
He did not enter a plea. His next appearance will be in the same courthouse on Monday, and he will stay in custody until then, the judge said.
Sharifullah — who the US says also goes by the name Jafar and is a member of Daesh’s Khorasan branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan — was detained by Pakistani authorities and brought to the United States.
President Donald Trump triumphantly announced his arrest Tuesday in an address to Congress, calling him “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”
Daesh militants gave Sharifullah a cellphone and a SIM card and told him to check the route to the airport, according to the Justice Department’s affidavit in the case.
When he gave it the all-clear, they told him to leave the area, it said.
“Later that same day, Sharifullah learned of the attack at HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] described above and recognized the alleged bomber as an Daesh-K operative he had known while incarcerated,” the affidavit said, using an alternative acronym for the group.
Sharifullah is charged with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death.”
Trump thanked Islamabad “for helping arrest this monster.”
“This evil Daesh-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack, in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers” by video.
The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.
Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing onto aircraft as they took off — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.
In 2023, the White House announced that a Daesh official involved in plotting the airport attack had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for acknowledging his country’s role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, and promised to “continue to partner closely with the United States” in a post on X.
Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.
Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.
The Taliban government denies the charges and in a statement said Sharifullah’s arrest “is proof” that Daesh hideouts are on Pakistani soil.
Daesh, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 people in an Iranian bombing last year.
Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership.”
Malala returns to Pakistan hometown 13 years after being shot
- Yousafzai was a 15-year-old schoolgirl when Pakistan Taliban militants boarded a bus and shot her in the head in Swat Valley
- She has made rare visits to the valley since, but it was the first time she returned to her childhood home in Shangla
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai returned to her Pakistan home village on Wednesday, 13 years after surviving an assassination attempt by militants.
Yousafzai was a 15-year-old schoolgirl when Pakistan Taliban militants boarded a bus and shot her in the head in the remote Swat Valley near the Afghanistan border.
She has made rare visits to the valley since, but it was the first time she returned to her childhood home in Shangla since being evacuated to the United Kingdom after the attack.
“As a child, I spent every holiday in Shangla, Pakistan, playing by the river and sharing meals with my extended family,” she said on X.
“It was such a joy for me to return there today — after 13 long years — to be surrounded by the mountains, dip my hands in the cold river and laugh with my beloved cousins. This place is very dear to my heart and I hope to return again and again.”
Yousafzai was accompanied by her father, husband, and brother for the high-security visit by helicopter which lasted just three hours.
Authorities have been cautious in allowing her to return to Shangla district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where militancy has soared following the return of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul in 2021.
The area was sealed off for several hours to provide security for her visit on Wednesday, which included a stop at local education projects backed by her Malala Fund.
“Her visit was kept highly secret to avoid any untoward incidents,” a senior administration official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“Even the locals were unaware of her plans to visit.”
The Pakistan Taliban is a separate but closely linked group to the Afghan Taliban and controlled swaths of the border regions at the time Yousafzai was shot.
Militants had ordered girls to stay home, but she continued to secretly go to school and wrote a blog about her experience.
She went on to become an education activist and the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner at age 17.
In January, she addressed Muslim world leaders at an education conference in Islamabad where she called for action against the Afghan Taliban, who have banned teenage girls from going to school.
Her hometown visit comes in a week marred by violence in Pakistan, with 18 civilians and soldiers killed in an overnight suicide attack on a military compound in the same province.
“I pray for peace in every corner of our beautiful country. The recent attacks, including in Bannu yesterday, are heartbreaking,” Yousafzai said of the attack.
Chinese firm launches Urumqi-Islamabad air cargo route to strengthen trade with Pakistan
- New air cargo route is expected to enhance connectivity, particularly in e-commerce, cross-border trade
- SF Airlines, which has taken the initiative, is a subsidiary of one of China’s largest logistics companies
ISLAMABAD: A new air cargo route linking Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Islamabad has been operationalized by SF Airlines, a subsidiary of one of China’s largest logistics and courier companies, Pakistani state media reported on Wednesday.
China and Pakistan share deep economic and strategic ties, with both countries working together on business and trade initiatives. While large-scale projects like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) remain central to economic cooperation, both governments have encouraged private-sector-led initiatives to strengthen bilateral trade.
“The Urumqi-Islamabad route is the first all-cargo route launched by SF Airlines in Xinjiang to Pakistan,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
“It will carry cross-border e-commerce goods and other products, said the air cargo carrier,” the report continued. “Two round-trip flights are scheduled to shuttle between Urumqi and Islamabad every week on this cargo route, providing more than 110 tons of air transport capacity weekly.”
The new air cargo route reflects a growing effort to enhance connectivity, particularly in e-commerce, logistics and cross-border trade.
China’s e-commerce sector has expanded rapidly, with cross-border trade becoming a major driver of its economy.
In 2023, China’s e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.38 trillion yuan ($328.3 billion), up 15.6 percent from the previous year, according to official Chinese data.
SF Airlines has played a key role in supporting this boom, operating a fleet of 89 all-cargo freighters that transport goods across domestic and international markets.
Pakistan calls for comprehensive global effort to counter militancy at UN meeting
- The country says ‘terrorism must be tackled at all stages’ like indoctrination, recruitment and financing
- It stresses the need to counter Islamophobia, saying it contributes to radicalization and international instability
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan called for a comprehensive international approach to combat militancy at a United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) briefing in New York on Wednesday, expressing full support for the agency’s mandate and advocating for sustainable funding through the UN budget.
The UNOCT, established in June 2017, is a specialized UN body tasked with strengthening international cooperation against militancy and assisting member states in implementing counter-terrorism strategies.
Speaking on behalf of Pakistan, Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, a diplomat at the country’s UN mission, underscored Pakistan’s longstanding battle against militant groups, noting that the country has lost over 80,000 lives fighting banned outfits such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Daesh and the Majeed Brigade of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
“Terrorism must be tackled at all stages: indoctrination, recruitment, financing and cross-border threats,” he said, identifying poverty, injustice, unresolved conflicts, foreign occupation and the denial of self-determination as key drivers of militancy.
Ajmal also stressed the need to counter Islamophobia, xenophobia and extremist ideologies, including far-right nationalist and anti-Muslim movements, which he said contributed to radicalization and global instability.
He urged reforms in the UN’s counterterrorism architecture, calling for a fairer sanctions regime and adequate resources for the Ombudsperson’s Office to ensure just implementation.
He maintained that Pakistan also wanted tighter regulation of emerging technologies, including cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence and online communication tools, to prevent their exploitation by militant outfits for recruitment, financing and disinformation.
Ajmal’s statement came just days after a twin suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan killed 18 people.
The country has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent years, which Islamabad attributes to cross-border attacks from Afghanistan, alleging they are “facilitated” by Kabul.
However, Taliban officials in Afghanistan have denied the accusation.
