KABUL: A prominent Pakistani politician and religious figure Maulana Sami-ul-Haq has claimed the Afghan Taliban will support Pakistan in the event the country is invaded by the foreigners. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader in a statement has said the Afghan Taliban leaders have declared their support to Islamabad during a gathering chaired by Mufti Mehmood Zakri. The statement was released from ...

ISLAMABAD: The multiparty conference held on Thursday to demand the swift merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa not only exposed the lack of coherence among stakeholders, but also saw some of the key players announcing their intention to block the mainstreaming of the tribal areas. Organised by the Awami National Party (ANP) to discuss the early merger of Fata with ...

ISLAMABAD: Opposed to the government decision to extend jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to the Federally Adminis­tered Tribal Areas (Fata), the country’s major opposition parties believe that the move is another ploy to delay the long overdue reforms in the region. The opposition suspects that the government is now backtracking from its earlier agreed plan of merging Fata ...

The Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said Pakistan is open to joint border patrols with the Afghan forces amid persistent US pressures on Pakistan regarding the terror safe havens often blamed for the major attacks in Afghanistan. Abbasi made the remarks during a press conference with the reporters on Tuesday, claiming that Pakistan does not provide safe havens ...

PAKISTAN: The foreign minister of Pakistan Khwajah Asif has claimed that the US forces have failed in Afghanistan as he arrived in Tehran on Monday to seek regional and international support in the aftermath of the US strategy declaration by President Donald Trump last month. “Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, during his day long visit to Tehran on 11 September ...

KABUL: The Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said the country cannot fight Afghanistan’s war in Pakistan, apparently gesturing towards the demands by Kabul and Washington to eliminate the sanctuaries of the Taliban and Haqqani terrorist network based in the key cities of the country. The remarks by Gen. Bajwa could be a gesture of ...

BEIJING: Pakistan and China agreed that the solution to the Afghan conflict “has to be fundamentally political”, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said on Friday. Asif, who arrived in China at the start of his regional outreach for consultations on the new US policy on Afghanistan and South Asia, addressed a joint press conference after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in ...

ISLAMABAD: Awami National Party central leader and former senator Afrasiab Khattak has said the state is still running ‘factories of extremism’ in the country, and the phenomenon cannot be ended in society until the process is continuing. He was speaking to BBC Urdu in connection with its special interview series, titled Vision Pakistan, being conducted on completion of 70 years ...

ISLAMABAD: Following the BRICS nations’ “regional security concern” over the militant groups allegedly based in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged the existence of such organisations, naming Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) among the internationally banned outfits operating from within Pakistan. Asif was talking to senior journalist Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News’ programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath on Tuesday night. According to ...

CHARSADDA: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has said that Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani’s negotiation offer to Pakistan is a positive step that will reduce tension between the two countries. Speaking at Ghazi Gul Baba Mosque after Eid prayers, he urged Pakistan to reciprocate positively because peace was prerequisite for stability and economic development. He said that unity ...