ISLAMABAD, April 2: Efforts are under way in Islamabad to establish a high-level contact with Kabul soon to defuse mounting tension between the two governments following the recent terse exchanges on border security issues. Reliable sources told Dawn on Sunday that both the governments were in touch with each other in this regard through diplomatic channels, adding that contacts at the official as well as political level were possible this month. Islamabad has already proposed a meeting of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) this month, it is learnt. The meeting is expected to take place in Kabul as the last one was held in Islamabad in the last quarter of 2005.

It is believed the meeting of the JEC at this juncture would have more of a symbolic than economic value and provide an opportunity for a high-level interaction that could have a ‘healing’ touch.