ISLAMABAD : Chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) Dr Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday thanked Pakistan for facilitating the Afghan peace process and the country’s efforts in ensuring the opportunity for dignified, durable and sustainable peace in the war-torn country.

“Pakistan has played an important role in facilitating this moment, and my delegation and I, thank you, the government and people of Pakistan for their efforts,” said Dr Abdullah in an address to the Institute for Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

The Afghan leader, who is in Islamabad for a three-day trip, emphasised that the start of negotiations between the Kabul and the Taliban movement is an “important opportunity”. He added, that as he was speaking in Pakistan, delegations from both the sides were in Doha “sitting around a table discussing ways and means of ending the decades of conflict through a political settlement in Afghanistan”.

The chairman for the reconciliation council urged that there is a “need to go beyond the usual stale rhetoric and shadowy conspiracy theories”.

“We cannot afford to pursue business as usual. We need fresh approaches that our people demand from us. It is more urgent than ever to look to our region as one region,” observed Dr Abdullah.

“We also need to draw necessary lessons of our gains and losses, threats and opportunities,” said Dr Abdullah. He added that there was also a need to look at the where “we could have been today if we would have aimed for stronger cooperation, reduced tensions, promoted moderation, increased regional connectivity.

The visiting Afghan dignitary said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are facing a “series of common threats including various shades of terrorism, extremism and intolerance”. He added that the “current geo political contest of the region” has also opened up new windows of opportunities.

“The time is now for both nations, to make a further detour, define a new vison, address outstanding issues as well as our shared interest, [and] realise that peace and stability in Afghanistan or any country in our south and central Asian geography [will] have a far reaching ripple effect,” said Dr Abdullah.

Dr Abdullah, while shedding light on his role, said that his job was to build consensus and “manage the collective efforts” for a just, inclusive and honourable end to the conflict and seek a political settlement.

“This transformed nation also wants to preserve its core accomplishments including the rights and liberties of all men and women of all communities and groups in Afghanistan,” said Dr Adbullah. He also assured the gathering that the country in the ongoing talks does not want any terrorist footprint in the country or allow any entity to “pose a threat to another nation”.

Dr Adbullah agreed that the “current talks offer the best hope” and that patience was key for “dignified, durable and sustainable peace “

Earlier, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Dr Abdullah understood the “ground realities, the challenges, the strengths, weaknesses and compulsions”. He added that his current position as chairman of the reconciliation council was the “most challenging job of his career”.

“I wish him well. Because in his success lies my success. So, it is important that we see eye to eye. It is important that we engage, we connect, and we exchange views frankly, honestly and in a candid manner,” said foreign minister Qureshi.

The foreign minister also said that to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table “was not easy but it happened”. He added that where the peace process had arrived did not happen overnight and the “convergence” had evolved with time.

The foreign minister said that today the Afghan peace process had “regional support”, adding that it cannot move forward without it.

“There is a greater realisation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that if we want a prosperous future for ourselves, we need peace and that realisation is dawning on us — on you [Dr Abdullah], me, and our nations, and that’s the positive thing I see,” said Qureshi.

The foreign minister emphasised that the realisation has “evolved over the years”, adding that the country’s calls to all stakeholders to realise there is no military solution to the Afghan conflict have finally been heard.

The foreign minister, once again, emphasised that there will be “spoilers” and warned the Afghan leader that there was a need to keep an eye on them.

He reminded him that “there are many who have benefited from the war economy” but the “overwhelming majority” felt that the peace process was the “right way forward”.

Qureshi also said that Pakistan feels that “Afghans and only Afghans can determine the future of Afghanistan”.

“Sustainable peace can come from within Afghanistan, it cannot be imposed on Afghanistan,” said Qureshi

ISLAMABAD : The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday summoned PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to appear before it tomorrow.

According to the corruption watchdog, he has been summoned for questioning in a case related to the appointment of the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation managing director.

The PML-N stalwart is facing a number of cases instituted by the bureau, including the LNG contract case, alleged assets beyond means case, and the PSO appointments case.

Lately, the NAB filed a supplementary reference against Abbasi in the LNG case. According to the supplementary reference, the PML-N leader had been receiving funds from Trinity Company located in the UAE, said to be working with an India-based firm, Siddhart Private Limited.

A sum of $538,895 was transferred to Ex-PM Abbasi’s account in three instalments from a Dubai bank, the reference revealed, adding that the UAE government provided the national graft buster with evidence in this regard as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) also confirmed these transactions.

By: Naveed Miraj

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 29 – In another episode of internal rifts in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet the Minister for Privatization and Advisor to PM on Finance have developed differences over holding meetings without consultation.

Sources in the Privatization ministry revealed that the minister for privatization had convened a a few meetings at the privatization commission for which invitations were sent to various members of the Cabinet Committee On Privatization (CCoE). These meetings were also participated by some officials from the ministry of Finance as well.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Hafiz Sheikh who by designation is the Chairman of CCoE and he did not take the issue lightly. In his opinion any meetings of the members of the CCoE can only be held with him in the chair. Hafiz Sheikh reportedly informed the Prime Minister about this violation of the procedures.

Prime Minister Imran Khan then spoke to the minister for Privatization and told him to take Hafiz Sheikh into confidence over such matters and not hold meetings of the CCoE members.

DNA

BEIJING, Sept. 29 – With the construction of industrial parks under CPEC and the advancement of infrastructure in Pakistan, it is believed that the supply chain of infrastructure projects in Pakistan will be improved in the future.

This was stated by Wang Yantao, Executive Vice President of POWERCHINA International Group Limited, in a interview with China Economic Net (CEN).

Taking advantage of its leading position in the field of electric power, POWERCHINA actively carries out infrastructure construction in Pakistan, such as Qasim coal-fired power plant, Dawood wind power project, Tarbela 4th extension hydropower project and Haveli gas power plant.

Despite the severe impact on domestic and foreign logistics in the midst of COVID-19 outbreak, POWERCHINA has gone all out to safeguard the delivery of equipment and material, anti-epidemic products in particular, and ensure the operation of construction without shutdown.

“POWERCHINA has provided nearly 10,000 jobs in Pakistan. Instead of dismissing any employees during the epidemic, it provided centralized working and living environment to protect them from coronavirus infection.”Wang noted.

With both Chinese and Pakistani staff sticking to their posts amid COVID-19 pandemic, the Qasim coal-fired power station saw an increase in its electric energy production this year, in accordance with Pakistani government’s requirement for power dispatch. “It generated 6000GWh of electricity in the first eight months of this year alone, reaching a record high.” Wang said.

As Pakistan has a large demographic dividend, its complete education system and vocational skills training system have cultivated engineers and technicians with qualified skills, as well as financial management personnel, said Wang, citing POWERCHINA-invested Dawood Power Generation Company, which hires only one Chinese employee, while the rest is locally recruited.

Wang added that while Pakistan boasts rich building materials of superior quality, such as cement, sand and wood, there’s a lot of room to push forward the industrialization by establishing its own industrial system to save foreign exchange and increase added value.

In the field of project contracting and infrastructure construction, Pakistani companies have made rapid progress through working side by side with Chinese enterprises on some large projects.

“While Pakistani project contracting enterprises have advantages in human resources, project management needs to be strengthened through cultivating talents with comprehensive quality and more effective integration with international resources.” Wang commented.

In the future, POWERCHINA is set to deepen its win-win cooperation with Pakistani side, especially in area of people’s livelihood, such as water and housing construction.

“With the support of Chinese and Pakistani government, we hope to actively participate in the construction of ML-1 railway project to drive Pakistan’s capacity building, setting up a milestone to China-Pakistan friendship.” Wang said.