State minister Khar visits Kabul; meets Deputy PM Hanafi, other high-ranking officials of interim Afghan govt
\n Islamabad
\nPakistan and Afghanistan officials Tuesday held high-level discussions in Taliban-ruled Kabul after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off their months-long ceasefire with Islamabad.
\nState Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani headed a high-level delegation during her one-day visit for political consultations with the leadership of the interim Afghanistan government and discussed multilateral matters of importance.
\nThe Foreign Office said Khar, in a meeting with Afghanistan\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, which was also attended by Minister for Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar, focused on bilateral trade, connectivity, and people-to-people contacts.
\nKhar and Afghanistan\u2019s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi along with their respective delegations also met and discussed matters of bilateral importance.
\nTheir meeting also focused on political consultations between the two governments, the Foreign Office said.
\n\u201cA range of bilateral issues of common interest including cooperation in education, health, trade and investment, regional connectivity, people-to-people contacts, and socioeconomic projects are discussed,\u201d the Foreign Office said.
\nFollowing the high-level meetings, Khar concluded her visits and headed back to Islamabad.
\nMeeting with Afghan women entrepreneurs
\nEarlier, Khar also attended a luncheon meeting hosted in her honour by Afghanistan\u2019s Women\u2019s Chamber of Commerce in Kabul.
\nThe minister announced that Pakistan would give special preference to the import of products from the businesses run by the women of Afghanistan.
\nKhar underlined the important role of women in society and expressed Pakistan\u2019s keen interest in strengthening linkages between the women entrepreneurs of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
\nMoreover, a leading Afghan women\u2019s group urged Khar not to forget their plight as she visited Kabul.
\n\u201cYou serve as an example of the status of women in our neighbouring country,\u201d the Afghan Women\u2019s Network, representing several activist groups, said in an open letter to Khar.
\n\u201cWe call on you to use your visit not only as a minister but as a woman and as a Muslim woman leader to support the women of Afghanistan and strengthen our solidarity.\u201d
\nTTP calls off ceasefire
\nThe TTP leadership announced the end of the ceasefire a day earlier and cited the latest military operation against their fighters in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a reason, the
\nAccording to a report published in The News, Pakistani militants had become active in southern parts of KP and particularly in South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
\nThe government had to postpone the polio campaign in Lakki Marwat district on Monday due to frequent attacks by the militants on police and operation launched against them.
\nSeveral rounds of talks were held with the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan to find an amicable solution to the years-long armed conflict.
\nReligious leaders and tribal leaders were also involved and sent to Kabul to persuade the Pakistani Taliban to soften their demands.
\nThe militants had lately withdrawn from certain demands but they wanted the government to restore the previous status of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and their armed return to Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State minister Khar visits Kabul; meets Deputy PM Hanafi, other high-ranking officials of interim Afghan govt Islamabad Pakistan and Afghanistan officials Tuesday held high-level discussions in Taliban-ruled Kabul after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off their months-long ceasefire with Islamabad. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani headed a high-level delegation during her one-day visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n