An important breakthrough in Pak-Afghan relations took place when the speakers of two sides decided to hold bilateral talks at parliamentary levels to promote cooperation and understanding as well as to evolve trust based strategy for fostering people-to-people contacts.

The development took place when the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser met with his Afghan counterpart Rahman Rahmani on the margins of 141st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Belgrade, Serbia, according to a message received from Belgrade.

The Afghan speaker appreciated the efforts of the government and Parliament of Pakistan for improving the state-of-affairs between the two countries and also lauded the initiatives of the Prime Minister Imran Khan in expanding the scope of cooperation by opening up the Torkham Border for 24/7 trade operations.

The speaker National Assembly informed the Afghan speaker that the National Assembly of Pakistan was ready to offer its services for enhancing the capacity of Afghan parliamentarians and parliamentary officials through the platform of Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS). He further extended an invitation to the Afghan speaker for leading a parliamentary delegation to Pakistan to discuss the outstanding bilateral issues including the relaxation in visa regime as well as expansion of trade and commerce activities between the two countries.

While informing the Afghan delegation on the Indian brutalities in the IOJ&K, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser also urged the Afghan speaker to play his due role in normalizing the situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir which is under siege for last 72 days in order to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the region. The maiden meeting between speakers of the two countries proved instrumental in paving way for continued cooperation through parliamentary platforms.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019