The Pakistan and Afghan PAJC groups had a meeting and working dinner hosted by the Ambassador of Pakistan, Mr. Zahid Nasrullah Khan, on June 22, 2018, at Pakistan Embassy. Mr. Anwar-ul-Haq Ahidi, former Finance and Commerce Minister, and former Governor Central Bank of Afghanistan, was the Chief Guest. Other Afghan notable dignitaries included Members of Parliament (Wolesi Jirga), Mr. Abdul Qader Zazai, Ms. Elay Ershad, Ms. Rangina Kargar (all four are distinguished Members of Beyond Boundaries PAJC) and Mr. Shafique Hassan, Advisor to CEO on Youth Affairs.
Ambassador Nasrullah welcomed the delegations of Beyond Boundaries saying that he is pleased to be hosting the Pak-Afghan track II delegations again; prior to this he had hosted the two delegations in December 2017. He said he supported and welcomed the CRSS initiative to improve Pak-Afghan bilateral relations through unofficial high-level diplomacy.
In his opening address, he told the delegations and other guests that the recent interaction at the bilateral level between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been at very high level, referring to PM Abbasi’s visit to Herat for the inauguration of TAPI gas pipeline entry into Afghanistan on 23rd February 2018, PM’s visit to Kabul on 6th April 2018, finalization of Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) document on 14th May 2018, Afghan NSA’s visit to Islamabad on 27th May 2018, and the visit of the CAOS Bajwa to Kabul on 12th June 2018, in addition to Afghan Ministers’ and Deputy Minister’s visits to Islamabad. The meetings have been very productive: “It is not just the optics but real time developments have taken place for peace and stability through the framework of APAPPS, which is a very comprehensive ongoing bilateral mechanism, and has already become operational through five joint working groups”.
He said Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship has relatively improved in the past one year, high level official political and military engagements have been a prominent feature, bilateral and transit trade are indicating positive trends, people to people contacts have remained steady.
He further noted that exports reached a two year high i.e. $ 1.282 billion during the last 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year; regulatory duty of 18% imposed in October 2017 on Afghan exports was waived off on 5th June 2018 while Pakistan has permitted import of 20,000 MT of cotton stored in Afghanistan after fulfilling SPS requirements as a one-time transaction, and also provided facilitation at Chaman and Torkham border crossings.
Talking about the people to people contacts, he added that in 2017, 318,152 visas were issued while in the first half of this year 145,380 visas have been issued so far. Under the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programme, 567 graduate and 180 post graduate fully funded scholarships were awarded to Afghan students as well as a gift of 40,000 tons of wheat was announced by Pakistan to Afghanistan during the visit of Prime Minister on 6th April 2018.
Concluding his address, he said that Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship is moving forward with a positive momentum. Implementation of commitments made in APAPPS will strengthen the current momentum in the bilateral relationship, and leadership of both the countries will have to exercise patience and perseverance in bringing peace and stability to the region.
Speaking on behalf of the Pakistan delegation, head of delegation Dr. Shoaib Suddle said that it was indeed very heartening to see the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship: “We as part of this track II Beyond Boundaries initiative have been to Afghanistan four or five times before but have never observed such positivity. Prior to our coming here, we had also met with Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, Ms. Tehmina Janjua, and during our interaction she was also very pleased and hopeful on the recent positive bilateral developments under the APAPPS mechanism”. He thanked the Pakistan Ambassador, other embassy senior officials, Chief Guest Mr. Ahidi, and the Afghan counterpart delegates, for arranging and participation in honor of the Beyond Boundaries delegations.
The Chief Guest, Mr. Anwaul Haq Ahidi, in his address, said that he, too, was very happy to see Pak-Afghan bilateral relations improving and heading in the right direction. He said that with the new positive developments, both countries will work together for peace and stability, which not only benefit Afghanistan and Pakistan, but other regional countries like the Central Asian Republics, and Iran. He hoped that the bilateral and transit trade will improve further and will help enhance economic development.
