Hekmatyar in Pakistan on three-day visit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday stressed the importance of an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process.

“All parties must honour their respective commitments and work for reduction in violence leading to ceasefire. The Afghan leaders must seize this historic opportunity to achieve durable and sustainable peace in Afghanistan,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the visiting Afghan leader, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, who called on him at the Foreign Office.

Hekmatyar is on a three-day visit to Pakistan. During the visit, he will meet with political and parliamentary leadership and other dignitaries. However, the Foreign Office in its statement did not make available the views of Hekmatyar during the meeting.

The foreign minister added that Pakistan facilitated the process that culminated in the US-Taliban Peace Agreement in Doha on 29 February 2020 and supported the commencement of Intra-Afghan Negotiations,” the foreign minister told the Afghan dignitary.

He also underlined the importance of exercising vigilance and guarding against the role of ‘spoilers’, both within and outside. He highlighted the steps taken by Pakistan to support Afghanistan on its path to reconstruction and economic development as well as for improved transit and bilateral trade relations.

The foreign minister underlined the importance of making the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland with dignity and honour a part of the peace process.