Pakistani lawmakers to visit Kabul soon: Rahmani

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Wolesi Jirga speaker on Monday said a Pakistani parliamentary delegation was scheduled to visit Kabul in near future to discuss peace, trade relations and other issues.

Mir RahmanRahmani told today’s session of the lower house that he met with his Pakistani counterpart Asad Qaiser on the sidelines of the fourth conference on counter-terrorism and strengthening regional connection held in Turkey last week and invited him to visit Kabul.

He added: “AsadQaiser will head a parliamentary delegation to Afghanistan at our official invitation.”

He did not provide details and the exact date of the Pakistani parliamentary delegation's visit to Afghanistan.

However, he said the two sides would discuss regional cooperation, peace in Afghanistan, and especially trade and transit relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

ShinkaiKarokhel, a Wolesi Jirga member from Kabul, welcomed the upcoming visit of the Pakistani parliament delegation, saying friendship groups should be set up before the delegation’s arrival in Kabul.

She expressed hope that Pakistan would take honest steps towards peace in Afghanistan and make effective use of this trip.

But RamazanBashardost, another lawmaker from Kabul, without elaborating, said: “Why we should form friendship groups when they kill our civilians, we should not create such a group with countries whose hands are involved in the bloodshed of our people.”

Two months ago, Mir RahmanRahmani, speaker of the Wolesi Jirga, led a delegation to Islamabad at the invitation of the government of Pakistan.

sa/ma