ISLAMABAD: The deputy foreign minister called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday to apprise him about her recent high-profile visit to the neighbouring nation of Afghanistan.
Hina Rabbani Khar, who paid a day-long official visit to Kabul on Tuesday, informed the prime minister about the outcome of her meetings with the interim Afghan leadership.
Sharif said Pakistan desired a peaceful Afghanistan and vowed to extend every possible support to the Afghan brethren.
He called upon the international community to play its role in improving the situation in Afghanistan as the warn-torn country faced the challenges of economy and security.
Her visit followed an announcement by the TTP ending a five-month old agreement to pause violence after Pakistan Army stepped up operations against them in former tribal regions and elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban seized power in August last year, its ties with Islamabad have deteriorated amid border clashes and a spike in cross-border attacks by TTP militants. Islamabad has repeatedly asked the Taliban to withdraw support to such elements widely reported to be operating freely inside the war-torn country.
Experts believe the group, instead of providing any strategic advantage or contributing to Pakistan’s security, has become a worrisome thorn in Islamabad’s side.
And, because of this, the longstanding alliance between the group and Islamabad, which dates back to the emergence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, is coming under unprecedented strain as their interests diverge.
