PESHAWAR: Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi’s scheduled visit to Pakistan from Aug 4 had to be delayed due to UN Security Council’s travel ban, it has been reliably learnt.
Sources said his three-day trip to Islamabad as part of the renewed effort to reset relationship between the two countries had to be delayed due to UN Security Council sanctions and travel ban.
He is one of the senior Taliban figures on the sanctioned list but had been granted waiver to travel. He has led high-level diplomatic delegations to Moscow and Beijing, but this is the first time that the Afghan Taliban foreign minister has been disallowed to travel abroad.
Other senior Taliban figures too have been barred from travelling abroad. Analysts say this is the first time that the foreign minister was denied permission, apparently, to exert pressure on the regime on a host of issues of concern to the international community.
Sources said that Islamabad was working to get permission from the UNSC to facilitate Mr Muttaqi’s visit. Pakistani officials had cited “technical reasons” for the last-minute change, but sources said that the real reason was the UNSC travel ban.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told Dawn both sides were still in the process of working on finalising dates. “There is no question of delay or cancellation.”
Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2025
