ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday said that there is desire on part of both Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve their tensed relations.
He was talking to media in Islamabad after his return from Afghanistan where he led a parliamentary delegation to meet the Afghan leadership. Describing talks with Afghan leadership very positive, speaker said visit of parliamentary delegation was aimed at reviving contacts between the two neighbours.
Ayaz said that peace, security and prosperity of both the countries are interlinked. He was confident that high-level exchanges between the two countries will continue in future as well in order to promote better understanding of each other’s issues.
“Our dialogue proceeded in a pleasant environment. They provided us with every comfort and gave us the respect that is given not only to a neighbouring country, but to a brother,” the speaker told reporters in Islamabad. Sadiq also said he held a frank, “heart-to-heart” meeting for over five hours with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
“We saw that the desire among the Afghan leadership, elected members of parliament and the Afghan people was for better relations and nothing else,” the speaker added.
He said the leadership in Afghanistan was also informed that the visiting delegation was representing all of Pakistan — the government, the opposition and the people of the country — and that Pakistan’s “desire is to restart the process of meetings that had been halted”.
“We are more than just neighbours and brothers … if there is peace in Afghanistan, there will be peace in Pakistan,” he said. The speaker said that the Afghan leadership had promised that former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah will soon visit Pakistan and the process [of dialogue] that has been broken will be restarted.
Sadiq said a written message by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also delivered in which the prime minister expressed his condolences over the loss of lives in a terrorist attack on a base in Mazar-e-Sharif in which close to 200 soldiers were killed.
In his message, the prime minister also promised co-operation and intelligence sharing between the two countries.
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