The visit of a Pakistani parliamentary delegation to Afghanistan was canceled due to security threats.
As soon as the plane was about to land in Kabul, the trip was canceled due to security threats.
“The speaker’s visit to Kabul has been postponed because the airport was closed due to security threats. The aircraft will disembark when the control tower informs the airport closure. A new date for the visit will be decided after joint consultations,” Pakistan said. Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
As per media reports, the five-member parliamentary delegation, led by parliamentary secretary Asad Qaisar, is looking to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries during the three-day visit, as well as support progress in the peace of the war-torn country. process.
Former Pakistani senator Farhatullah Babar has questioned the timing of the mysterious cancellation of the trip.
“The security threat arose just as it landed. Was the visit not cleared in advance? Visit was postponed indefinitely, new date given. No regrets by the host. Decision conveyed by the tower operator. The normal protocol of the host’s high-level representatives speaking to guests from the tower is ignored There is more to it than that, “Babar said in a tweet.
The so-called threats come as calls to blacklist Pakistan by the FATF escalate. Former Canadian Ambassador Chris Alexander has called for Islamabad to be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) while stating that Imran Khan’s government continues to support the Taliban and other terror groups.
In December last year, a series of videos emerged showing senior Taliban leaders meeting their followers and Taliban fighters in Pakistan.
In the video, deputy Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political office, is seen holding a briefing with Taliban cadres about Afghanistan peace negotiations and acknowledging the presence of the Taliban’s supreme leader in Pakistan.
In December, former Pakistani senator Afrasiab Khattak said Pakistan was using the Taliban as a “tool” for its dominance in Afghanistan under the pretext of strategic depth.
Peace negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban began in Qatar’s capital, Doha, in September. In early December, Kabul and the Taliban announced that they had agreed on a negotiating framework, allowing discussions to now be held on substantive issues. Little progress, however, has so far been made since then.