Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday received a phone call from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and expressed hope that the next phase of the Afghan peace process would start soon, leading to the peaceful end of the lingering conflict in the war-ravaged country.
Both leaders exchanged Eid greetings and discussed host of issues including Afghan peace process, a statement issued by the PM Office said.
The two leaders, as per the official statement, discussed the latest stage in the Afghan reconciliation. PM Imran highlighted Pakistan’s positive contribution to the peace process, strongly stressing that peace in Afghanistan is of paramount importance. He expressed the hope that the current momentum would be further built to implement the US-Taliban Peace Agreement in its entirety leading to Intra-Afghan negotiations at the earliest.
The much-awaited intra-Afghan dialogue is expected to resume soon as the Afghan government and Taliban have almost completed the prisoners swap, a key precondition for the start of the next phase of peace process.
The issue lingered on because of Afghan government’s initial reluctance to free Taliban prisoners before the intra-Afghan dialogue. The intra-Afghan dialogue will decide the future political dispensation of Afghanistan and the role of Taliban.
