Sartaj trip to Kabul delayed by a day

Published July 19, 2013
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz. — File Photo
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The planned visit to Kabul by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz has been delayed by a day. He will now be travelling to Afghanistan on Sunday.

Mr Aziz had on Wednesday announced at a press conference that he would visit Afghanistan on Saturday to deliver an invitation to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit Pakistan.

The delay will not change much, except that Mr Aziz’s desire for an overnight stay in Kabul will remain unfulfilled.

It will be premature to say how the ice-breaking trip will go, but Afghans, diplomatic sources revealed, had not been too keen about the visit said to have been pushed by Western leaders.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are having a protracted bad patch in their ties, which is affecting the reconciliation process.

Mr Aziz intends to address some of the concerns of the estranged Afghan leader-ship and persuade them to work with Pakistan for taking the peace process forward.

At a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Islamabad on Thursday Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to support all initiatives aimed at promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Secretary Hague, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, expressed support for all the initiatives.

Opinion

Aid and debt
Updated 18 Aug 2021

Aid and debt

The fact that aid is for the giver and not the taker is proven in the methods that have been used for its disbursal.
Two steps back
18 Aug 2021

Two steps back

Remaking Afghanistan was always an imperial illusion.
Wars lost and won
Updated 17 Aug 2021

Wars lost and won

It seemed that in Iraq and in Afghanistan, the focus was on recruiting and training people but not on building institutions.

Editorial

Price of US follies
Updated 18 Aug 2021

Price of US follies

The birth of terror organisations like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda are by-products of America’s ideologically fuelled policies.
18 Aug 2021

Grotesque stunt

EVEN by the standards of the megalomaniacal Narendra Modi, it was an astonishingly ill-timed publicity stunt. A few...
18 Aug 2021

Facilitating SMEs

THE new three-year State Bank refinance scheme — SME Asaan Finance — for providing collateral-free bank loans to...
Taliban’s challenge
Updated 17 Aug 2021

Taliban’s challenge

The world will be keenly looking especially at how the Taliban react towards girls’ education.
17 Aug 2021

Neglect of farm sector

PUNJAB’S Kissan Card scheme is a good initiative that will help farmers, especially smallholders, directly access...
17 Aug 2021

Organ donation

IT has been more than 10 years since the passage of the ethical transplantation law in the country, yet the cause ...