Staff Reporter
“It is very heartening as well as my first time to be sitting across an assembly of youth from across the border. I will definitely report to the parliament about this and ask them to create a parliamentary caucus for Pak-Afghan relations,” Member of Parliament Ms. Mehnas Akbar Aziz stated this while speaking to a gathering of Pakistani and Afghan youth alongside high-level distinguished speakers from both countries at the Youth Summit organized by Afghan Studies Center in Islamabad Friday. The summit focused on connecting youth beyond borders to work for a better tomorrow and was attended by a high-profile 13 member visiting Afghan delegation and young representatives from High Peace Council, Kabul.
Former member of Afghan Parliament Khalid Pashtoon, heading a visiting high-profile Afghan delegation also present, expressed that he was delighted to see the youth of Pakistan and Afghanistan together under one roof. “This opens the roads for consensus towards a better and progressive future. Both countries were very close few decades ago, then bad things happened and there emerged a space between us two neighbors. Though, we miss those old days, when we used to be like twin brothers. However, I hope that once peace prevails in Afghanistan in the context of Doha talks, the two nations would get closer once again. Most of the issues between Kabul and Islamabad are linked with security; once the security issue is resolved in the bigger picture, everything else will fall in place,” he said, giving hope the youngsters present.
Pashtoon further stated that, in recent years, a lot has been done regarding bilateral relations. “We have come a long way. One such example is of the opening of the Torkham border round the clock.
