ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: The government of Pakistan has closed down the Afghan consulates in Peshawar and Quetta and informed the Afghan ambassador, Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef, about the closure.

The foreign office spokesman, Aziz Ahmad Khan, told a press briefing here on Tuesday that the government ordered closure of the Afghan consulates in Peshawar and Quetta, which usually dealt with visa/passport issues, since the situation in Afghanistan had undergone change and chaotic conditions prevailed there.

“The control of the border check post near Peshawar is in the hands of Northern Alliance group or a group that has taken over Jalalabad and permit or visa issued by the consulate would not be accepted by that group,” he said.

The same goes with Quetta where, he said, the situation remained “confused”.

He said question of any alternative arrangements would be taken up once the transitional setup was in place in Afghanistan.

At present, the spokesman said, the status of the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and the ambassador remained unchanged. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had said on Monday that according to the accepted diplomatic norms Ambassador Zaeef would be able to conduct his job as before and the government had not withdrawn his diplomatic office, status, privileges and immunity.

A change in the present representation of Afghanistan, the spokesman indicated, might be made after the UN-sponsored process with participation of representative and multi-party and multi-ethnic Afghans, succeeded in formation of transitional government in Afghanistan. The first step towards that goal is expected with the holding of a meeting of Afghan invitees by the UN secretary-general’s special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Germany on or around Nov 24.

The spokesman was optimistic about the outcome of the new initiative taken by Mr Brahimi, which, he hoped, would be positive and soon, when a correspondent reminded him that similar previous initiative by Mr Brahimi failed. The proposed initiative, Mr Khan pointed out, enjoyed support of international community and the United Nations.

He indicated that even the Northern Alliance was in favour of a broad-based multi-ethnic government for Afghanistan.

Responding to another question, the spokesman said though lately Pakistan had had no contact with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, it had maintained contacts with it as well as several other Afghan groups in the past.

Asked whether the government had lodged protest with the Kabul authorities against the killing of a Pakistani journalist in Afghanistan, the spokesman said Islamabad did not have details about the alleged death of the Pakistani journalist and added that it would try to gather complete information through the Red Cross and the UN officials in Afghanistan.

According to press reports, four journalists ambushed in Afghanistan by unidentified persons on Monday, were from Australia, Spain and Italy, while one of them Azizullah Haidri was an Afghan national who worked for Reuters in Islamabad.

IRANIAN MINISTER: About the visit of Iranian deputy foreign minister to Pakistan, the spokesman said the two sides discussed the bilateral relations and the regional situation with particular reference to Afghanistan, adds APP.

He recalled the meetings of President Gen Pervez Musharraf with his Iranian counterpart in New York, meeting with the first vice president of Iran during a technical stopover of President Musharraf at Teheran en route to New York and meeting of foreign ministers of the two countries. The spokesman said this was a continuous process of dialogue between the two brotherly countries.