Afghan president invites Peshawar Zalmi to Kabul

KARACHI: Members of a Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) led Pak-Afghan Track 1.5/11 have welcomed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s invitation to the victors of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Peshawar Zalmi.Javed Afridi. The PSL owner confirmed to the media that the Afghan president had invited the Zalmis for matches in Kabul mostly probably in May. 

“This invitation has triggered hopes that cricket may soon become a vehicle to ease tensions and pave way for the resumption of a meaningful and serious dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan shortly,” Pakistani members of the Beyond Boundaries initiative said in a statement.

Cricket diplomacy is not new in South Asia as two former Presidents General ZiaulHaque and General Musharraf , too, used it to break the stalemate and initiate dialogue with India.“It seems President Ghani has taken a leaf from history with the expectation that goodwill thus generated at popular level may strengthen his hand to resume political dialogue with Pakistan,” a CRSS statement said, adding that such bilateral inter-action is very much in sync with the recommendations that nine meetings under Beyond Boundaries  have produced. 

Beyond Boundaries, a project undertaken jointly by CRSS and its Afghan counterpart, Women, Peace and Security Studies (WPSO). It includes Ms. Shazia Marri MNA, Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Maj-Gen. (retd) Ejaz Awan, Lt. Gen. (retd) Asif Yasin Malik, Ambassador Mian Sanaullah, Ambassador Qazi Humayun, and journalist Muhammad Tahir form the Pakistan side, and Sayed Ishaq Gailani former MP, Mozammil Shinwari, former deputy Minister, Wazhma Frogh, civil society activist, Palwasha Hassan, civil society activist, Ketabullah Khpolwak Sapai TOLO TV, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, head of executive council of the High Peace Council; Elay Ershad MP, Khalid Pastoon MP, Fowzia Koofi MP, and Sami Mahdi TOLO TV.

Under the Beyond Boundaries project’s Karachi visit of Afghan delegation in January 2017, the chief minister of Sind had agreed to explore sports exchanges including visits of national and under-19 cricket teams, football teams, and taekwondo teams between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Action is already under way to finalise the necessary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the governments of Sindh and Afghanistan.