Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Wednesday said issues of Afghan refugees would come under discussion during the upcoming meeting of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) scheduled to be held in October.

The next round of the APAPPS meeting, to be held in Pakistan in second week of October, would discuss all-inclusive matters of five sub-groups, including related to Afghan refugees, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Faisal said at a weekly press briefing.

In response to a question on resumption of Pakistan’s Consulate in Jalalabad, the spokesman said, “We are working with them to resolve the issue and hope that the consular services at the Consulate General in Jalalabad will be resumed soon.”

Regarding talks on border-management and counter-terrorism, he said ‘good discussion’ was held on the subject with the Afghan side during the visit of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to Kabul.

On Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the spokesman said both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were brotherly countries and the prime minister chose it for his first foreign visit. To a question about Pakistan seeking economic assistance from Saudi Arabia during the visit, he said he was not aware of any such decision.

To a question on the Iranian nuclear deal, he said it represented a good example of negotiated settlement of a complex issue through dialogue and diplomacy. He said unilateral withdrawal and arbitrary rescinding of the agreement, which was an outcome of a decade-long effort of diplomats, would undermine the confidence of the international community in dialogue and diplomacy. To a question about fate of non-career diplomats serving at the Pakistani missions including Ambassador to United States Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, he said the foreign minister had already stated that such decision would not be taken in haste, but only after due consideration.

Whether the issue of continuous ceasefire violations by India on the Line of Control (LoC) and the human rights violation in Indian-held Kashmir by the occupation forces was discussed during the visit of Chinese foreign minister, the spokesman said Pakistan appraised China of the grave situation in the occupied valley and its serious consequences for the whole region.

About possibility of meeting between Foreign Minister Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in New York, he said no decision had been taken so far, however “we are engaged in the matter”.

To a question, the spokesman said there has been no official communication between Pakistan and India over the opening of Kartarpur border.

Published in Daily Times, September 20^th 2018.