Daily Times

Ever since PTI came into power after winning the free, fair and transparent July 25,2018 general election, Prime Minister Imran Khan has been working really very hard day and night in a determined and committed manner tackling number of challenges internally and externally to put the staggering national economy back on the path as early as possible and improve bilateral relations with foreign countries, improve Pakistan’s soft and positive image and ensure peace at home and the region.

In this regard, Prime Minister Imran Khan has paid more than two dozen trips to eleven countries including Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Qatar, Switzerland, US, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, of one day and couple of days durations till February 2020. In all fairness, he has developed personal friendly relations with number of international leaders and more and more world leaders are coming in contact with him. All this, surely and certainly augurs well for Pakistan and its people.

His one-day official visit to Afghanistan on November 19, 2020, ,12th in number, was not only much awaited but is also going to be historical and result-oriented hopefully ushering in new era of relations between the two neighbouring bordering countries.

He had undertaken the day-long visit to Kabul at the invitation of President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan.

Pakistan is well-known for its efforts for peace in war-torn and region at large through Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and these efforts are being duly acknowledged and appreciated by more and more world leaders.

Quite obviously, this visit has come within days of crucial juncture of the history of US Presidential election and Democratic candidate Joe Biden outnumbering incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and new President will be entering the White House in the first week of January 2021. There are strong indications of US withdrawing its troops from war-torn Afghanistan after almost two decades who were sent in there to fighter war against terrorism.

Not only Afghanistan but more importantly Pakistan has paid very price in the fight against terrorism through its brave, courageous and valiant armed forces. Pakistan’s peace efforts through its armed forces are duly being acknowledged by the world.

As already mentioned above, Pakistan has always supported efforts for peace through dialogue and negotiation and emphasizing war is not the solution to problems of Afghanistan.

PM Imran Khan’s day long visit as such was pertinent as it took place just when the intra-Afghan dialogues hosted by Qatar is in progress though at pretty slow pace by still positive engaging all stake-holders.

Needless to mention here again that Pakistan had played a key part in brokering the much desired and wanted peace process that helped in starting a formal dialogue between Afghan-Taliban and the government in Doha in second week of September 2020 for which it was striving seriously and sincerely for some time.

Coming back to PM Imran Khan’s day long visit to Kabul, he inter-acted with President Ashraf Ghani, both holding one on one meeting, and the visiting PM availed the opportunity to reiterate Pakistan’s all-out support for peace and stability in Afghanistan. The PM told his host that he had chosen this moment to visit Kabul to assure the Afghan government that “Pakistan will do everything whatever possible to help reduce this violence and in fact move towards a ceasefire”.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the meeting said that we have come to an understanding that a shared vision regarding cooperation is not only essential for relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan but also a harbinger of regional cooperation and connectivity. Both the leaders discussed ways to further deepen the fraternal bilateral between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Afghan peace process and regional economic development and connectivity.

President Ashraf Ghani and PM Imran Khan also agreed to strengthen bilateral relations as the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan were linked with each other through immutable bonds of history, faith, culture, kinship, values and traditions. Pakistani Premier expressed confidence and hope that his visit would help foster a stronger and multi-dimensional relationship between the two brotherly countries. He also invited President Ashraf Ghani to visit Pakistan at his convenience.

As the two leaders were talking in Kabul, the charge de’affaires of US Islamabad Ms Ulger called on Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa which was a major development. The senior US diplomat appreciated Pakistan’s role to bring peace back in Afghanistan. Both of them agreed to work together for achieving the objective.

It is worth mentioning that previously relations between Islamabad and Kabul were often marked by sort of trust-deficit and hostility. But there was visible and remarkable improvement after President Ashraf Ghani came into power. In order to boost the bilateral ties, it must be mentioned here that both countries have strong ideological and cultural affinities that can be exploited for better ties in the times ahead.

Public diplomacy seeks to promote national interest by using different channels of communication among the masses. For enhancing and promoting public diplomacy between the two neighbouring bordering countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan many venture are already in progress particularly trade and commerce, education and health sectors.

PM Imran Khan during his recent maiden visit to Kabul expressed his interest in exploring sports ventures and related activities between two countries particularly mutual media ventures, films and dramas production tv media exchange prorammes can play a pivotal role in promoting bilateral relations besides culinary and food festivals of the food specialties from both sides can also go a long way in enriching the peoples taste and in the process also go a long way in promoting tourism.

PM Imran Khan, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and others, also apprised President Ashraf Ghani about India’s hostilities and sponsoring of terrorism in order to detstabilize Pakistan and emphatically urged the host President to ensure India is not allowed to use Afghan soil in carrying out its deplorable and condemnable terrorist and other hostile activities against Pakistan.

Undoubtedly, peace, stability and prosperity in Pakistan and in the region at large is linked with complete restoration of peace in Afghanistan as emphatically stressed by PM Imran Khan during his historical day long visit to Kabul.

The writer is Lahore-based freelance columnist and retired deputy controller (news), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com