ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s Consul-General in Peshawar Mohibullah Shakir and Ali Amin Gandapur, chief minister of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on Sunday called for efforts to reopen a key border crossing between the two countries, the closure of which has resulted in suspension of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan closed the Torkham border crossing in KP’s Khyber district on Feb. 21 when Afghan authorities initiated “construction of trenches and other development work” along the border, Naheed Khan, a senior police official in the Khyber district, told Arab News last month.
Torkham serves as a vital corridor for transporting goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. Thousands of trucks and vehicles carrying goods, including fruits and vegetables, have been stranded on both sides since the closure of the border, according to Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
On Sunday, the Afghan consul-general met CM Gandapur to discuss bilateral trade, regional peace and security, and issues faced by Afghan nationals residing in the northwestern Pakistani province, according to KP CM’s office.
“Discussion took place at the meeting on the difficulties faced by traders and common people on both sides due to the closure of the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham,” CM Gandapur’s office said in a statement.
“[Both figures] agreed on efforts to open the border as soon as possible in view of the month of Ramadan and the upcoming Eid Al-Fitr.”
Both sides have held at least two rounds of talks at Torkham, but negotiations between border officials had failed to yield any results.
“The Torkham border is still closed to all types of traffic. A number of conditions have been set in the negotiations by both the sides for the opening of the road, which will only be opened after both sides agree on these conditions,” Mullah Abdul Jabbar Hikmat, the Afghan commissioner at Torkham, said in a statement on Sunday.
“An announcement will be made when it is opened.”
In the past, border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces have led to the closure of key crossings like Torkham and Chaman, severely disrupting trade and halting the movement of people between the two countries.
The development comes at a time of strained ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan over a surge in militants attacks in Pakistan’s western provinces that border Afghanistan.
Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. Afghan officials deny involvement and insist that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
“The closure of the border is not in the interest of the people on both sides, it is causing difficulties to the business people as well as the common people,” CM Gandapur was quoted as saying by his office.
“There is a need to open the border as soon as possible in view of the difficulties faced by the people.”
The KP chief minister said people on both sides of the border were troubled by the current security situation in the region.
“We are making efforts on our part to open the border, the Afghan embassy should also play a role in this regard,” he said. “Regional peace is in the interest of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Gandapur’s statement came hours after the KP administration urged Pakistani federal authorities to approve the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for its talks with Afghanistan on surging militancy “as soon as possible.”
The KP government said in February that it had decided to send two delegations, comprising tribal elders, religious scholars, and political leaders, to Kabul to engage in direct talks with the Afghan Taliban rulers for peace and stability in the province.
It followed a statement by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, in which he said the security situation in the region was directly linked to “developments in neighboring Afghanistan,” following a consultative meeting of various religious and political parties in the province.
However, Pakistan’s foreign office said it was not informed of KP’s decision to engage in talks with Kabul, adding that external ties with another country fell under the federal government’s jurisdiction.
Pakistan, Afghanistan officials seek urgent reopening of Torkham border to ease Ramadan trade, travel
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Pakistan, Afghanistan officials seek urgent reopening of Torkham border to ease Ramadan trade, travel
- Pakistan closed Torkham border crossing on Feb. 21 when Afghan authorities initiated ‘construction of trenches and other development work’ along border
- Torkham serves as a vital crossing for transporting goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan and its closure has affected thousands of traders and travelers
Pakistan and Afghanistan resume high-level talks amid strained ties over militancy, deportations
- Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan arrived in Kabul for a Joint Coordination Committee session
- Afghanistan’s minister for industry and commerce is also expected in Pakistan today for bilateral consultations
PESHAWAR: Senior Pakistani and Afghan officials resumed high-level talks on Wednesday, as a delegation from Islamabad arrived in Kabul for a session of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC), a bilateral platform aimed at fostering cross-border cooperation on a range of issues, amid ongoing tensions over militancy and refugee deportations.
The last JCC meeting between the two countries was held in January last year soon after the launch of a nationwide deportation drive targeting undocumented Afghan nationals in Pakistan.
The campaign followed a sharp rise in militant violence in 2023, prompting Pakistani authorities to accuse the administration in Kabul of “facilitating” cross-border attacks by armed groups operating from Afghan soil, and to claim that some Afghan citizens in Pakistan were involved. The Afghan Taliban authorities rejected both allegations, saying Pakistan’s security challenges were an internal matter.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) and Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq, who is leading his country’s delegation, confirmed the meeting in a social media post following his arrival in Kabul.
“SAPM/Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan arrived at Kabul at the head of a delegation to attend the JCC meeting,” he said in a social media post. “JCC meeting is being held after a long gap.”
Separately, Sadiq’s office announced that a delegation led by Afghan Acting Minister for Industry and Commerce Noor Uddin Azizi would arrive in Pakistan today, comprising representatives from Afghanistan’s economic, foreign affairs, refugee, and civil aviation authorities, along with private sector stakeholders.
Officials from both sides have not disclosed the full agenda of the JCC, but their interactions in the two countries are expected to focus on economic cooperation, transit trade, refugee issues, border management and security challenges during the day.
Pakistan PM vows crackdown on human smugglers after four citizens die in Libya boat tragedy
- The foreign office confirmed the incident off the coast of Harawa on Tuesday that left at least 11 dead
- Similar boat tragedies have also occurred before, prompting official efforts to dismantle trafficking networks
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed strong action against human smugglers who entice Pakistani nationals with promises of better economic prospects abroad, risking their lives at sea, as the country confirmed the deaths of four citizens in a boat tragedy off the coast of Libya.
Sharif’s remarks came after officials confirmed that a migrant vessel had sunk off Libya’s Harawa coast, leaving at least 11 people dead, including four Pakistani nationals.
Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in Tripoli said the victims were identified through national documents recovered from the scene.
“Deeply saddened by reports from our Mission in Tripoli of yet another boat capsizing incident off the Harawa coast near Sirte City, Eastern Libya, in which at least four Pakistanis have been confirmed dead out of 11 casualties,” the prime minister said in a post on social media.
“Our Mission and the Foreign Office are working with the local authorities to retrieve the remains of the deceased,” he added. “While we are taking strong action against those responsible for luring our citizens into this death trap, we will continue to come down hard against such elements so no family has to carry the coffins of their loved ones in such accidents.”
The foreign office identified the victims as Zahid Mehmood from Gujranwala and Sameer Ali, Syed Ali Hussain and Asad Ali from Mandi Bahauddin in eastern Pakistan after the tragedy.
Two additional bodies recovered from the shipwreck remain unidentified, officials said, as the Crisis Management Unit at the foreign ministry continues to monitor the situation.
Each year, thousands of Pakistanis embark on perilous journeys across land and sea in search of work in Europe, often falling prey to human smugglers who arrange illegal crossings for large sums of money.
The Libya route remains one of the most trafficked and dangerous passages.
In February, Libyan authorities recovered the bodies of at least 16 Pakistani nationals after a similar boat tragedy off the coast near Zawiya city, with nearly 10 others reported missing.
Last year, over 260 Pakistanis drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the coast of Pylos, Greece, one of the deadliest Mediterranean disasters in recent history.
Pakistani authorities have since intensified efforts to dismantle trafficking networks, arresting several agents and cracking down on operations that facilitate such illegal migration.
Pakistan denies claims UN rights resolution unilaterally softened to accommodate Israel’s concerns
- Pakistan presented the resolution on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation earlier this month
- It says the resolution is part of an annual OIC initiative and is only tabled after Palestinian endorsement
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday denied social media claims that a United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution presented by its diplomat in support of Palestine earlier this month was unilaterally diluted to accommodate Israeli concerns, saying the posts were based on inaccurate media reports and misrepresented the resolution’s outcome.
The statement followed a story by a global wire service, which reported that US lobbying, despite Washington’s withdrawal from the Council, had succeeded in preventing the inclusion of a powerful investigative mechanism in the Pakistan-led resolution on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The report subsequently triggered criticism on social media, prompting the foreign office in Islamabad to issue a clarification.
“We have taken note of certain social media posts concerning the recently adopted Human Rights Council resolution on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” the statement said. “These posts, based on inaccurate media reports, reflect a misunderstanding of the resolution adoption process and mischaracterize its outcome.”
The resolution, which focused on accountability for Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories, is part of an annual OIC initiative at the Council in Geneva.
According to the foreign office, the resolution is only presented after the Palestinian delegation expresses satisfaction with the negotiated text, followed by final endorsement from the OIC member states.
“At no stage the text is modified unilaterally,” it added. “The resolution adopted during the latest HRC session adhered strictly to this process.”
The final text adopted by the Council referred the matter of setting up an independent mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for serious crimes in Palestinian territories to the UN General Assembly.
Pakistan rejected any suggestion of compromising its position on Palestine, reiterating that it does not recognize Israel and, as a matter of principle, does not engage with it in multilateral forums.
The foreign office noted that two other OIC-sponsored resolutions on Palestine were also adopted during the Council’s latest session, reinforcing Pakistan’s “unwavering and historic commitment” to the Palestinian cause.
Pakistan opposes expansion of permanent Security Council seats, calls for elected representation
- A Pakistani diplomat says ‘there is no justification for creating new centers of privilege within the UN’
- He says the UN should accommodate interests of underrepresented blocs like the Arab Group, OIC
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday opposed any expansion of the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, warning against “creating new centers of privilege” within the world body and instead advocating for a more democratic and regionally representative Council.
The statement came during an informal meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council reform, where long-standing divisions between two key camps — the G4 nations and the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group — were once again laid bare.
While the G4 — India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — seek permanent seats for themselves in a restructured Council, the UfC group, led by Italy and including Pakistan, favors an expansion only in the non-permanent category to ensure greater regional equity and accountability.
“We remain staunchly opposed to proposals for permanent seats, as there is no justification for creating new centers of privilege within the UN,” said Ambassador Usman Iqbal Jadoon, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN.
“Our goal is to democratize the Council and support a reform that corresponds to the interests of the large majority of member states and regional and cross-regional groups, not just a few self-appointed states,” he added.
Jadoon stressed that any increase in the Council’s size must reflect the dramatic rise in UN membership since 1945, particularly from small and medium-sized states, and warned that allocating a limited number of additional seats permanently to a handful of countries would diminish chances for broader representation.
He reiterated Pakistan’s support for the UfC proposal to raise the Council’s membership to 27, composed entirely of elected non-permanent members, with seats distributed among the UN’s five regional groups.
The approach, he continued, would better accommodate the interests of underrepresented blocs such as the Arab Group, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“Each seat allocated permanently to an individual country will be a permanent blow to equitable geographical distribution or regional representation in any sense of the word,” Jadoon argued.
The Pakistani diplomat maintained that permanent seats occupied by individual states, even without veto power, would entrench the status quo and undermine accountability, an outcome he described as antithetical to the spirit of reform.
Roadside bomb kills three in southwest Pakistan as two polio workers abducted in northwest
- The first attack occurred in Mastung, a district in the insurgency-hit province of Balochistan
- Polio workers’ kidnapping happened ahead of a nationwide anti-polio drive starting April 21
QUETTA: A powerful roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security personnel in Pakistan’s restive southwest on Tuesday, killing three officers and wounding 18 others, officials said.
Separately, gunmen also abducted two polio workers in the northwest.
The first attack occurred in Mastung, a district in the province of Balochistan, according to government spokesperson Shahid Rind.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in the province as well as other parts of the country.
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with an array of separatist groups, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019, staging attacks.
The separatists seek independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Balochistan has persisted.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, denounced the attack and vowed to continue the “fight against terrorism” until it's eradicated.
Meanwhile, gunmen attacked a vehicle and abducted two polio workers who were on their way home after visiting a health facility in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a local police officer Zahid Khan.
The kidnapping happened ahead of a nationwide anti-polio campaign which will begin April 21 to vaccinate 45 million children.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the abductions but authorities have previously blamed militants for such attacks.
Insurgents falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children despite the government and medical experts’ vehement denials.
Pakistan has reported six new cases of polio since January.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus has not been eradicated.
