Gulbuddin Hekmatyar To Arrive In Islamabad Today

ISLAMABAD: After former CEO Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah, who visited Pakistan last month, former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, along with a delegation will be visiting Islamabad from 19-21 October 2020.

During the visit, Mr. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will call on the Prime Minister and President and will meet Chairman Senate, Speaker National Assembly, Foreign Minister and other dignitaries. He will deliver a talk at a policy think-tank and interact with the media.

The visit of former Prime Minister will provide an opportunity for exchange of views on the Afghan peace process and strengthening of Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral relations as well as people-to-people interaction.

Pakistan attaches high importance to its fraternal ties with Afghanistan, rooted deep in shared history, faith, culture, values and traditions. Pakistan fully supports all efforts for peace, stability and prosperity of the Afghan people.

Pakistan has consistently supported an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

The visit of Mr. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will further strengthen bilateral ties and people-to-people linkages between the two brotherly countries and help advance efforts for peace and stability.

Hekmatyar, who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and later served as the country’s prime minister.

He leads Hizb-e-Islami, a militia which is also a political party.

Pakistan is engaged with all Afghan stakeholders for the sake of the peace process, the Pakistani Ambassador in Kabul, Mansoor Khan, told foreign media.

“We are in touch with President Ashraf Ghani and his government. We invited Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who is chairman of HCNR and also a leading politician in Afghanistan coming from the Jamiat-e-Islami party and had a useful exchange of views with him about the peace process and bilateral relations. Now we will be hosting Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who hails from another leading Afghan party Hizb-e-Islami,” he was quoted as saying.

He added: “Pakistan has a policy of expanding its outreach to all Afghan leaders and politicians so that conditions for the intra-Afghan negotiations remain conducive and the process continues to move forward.”

The United States has acknowledged Pakistan’s help in fostering Afghan peace efforts, including in encouraging the Taliban to negotiate.

The Afghan peace talks come after a deal signed in February between the US and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, outlining the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan to end the longest military engagement in American history. The Taliban have been waging an armed rebellion since the group was toppled from power in a US-led invasion in 2001.