No room for third party in Pak-Afghan dialogue: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Tuesday said the Pak-Afghan dialogue did not need a third party involvement adding that Pakistan was making sincere efforts for success of the ongoing Afghan peace process.

Addressing the seventh round of Pakistan-Afghanistan Track-II dialogue here, he said Pakistan had played its due role in the development of the war-battered Afghanistan. He said peace in Afghanistan was imperative for regional connectivity, and the Afghan people had to decide their future themselves.

Qureshi said he had visited different countries and also held several meetings with the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad for peace in Afghanistan.

Inviting Afghanistan to make a new beginning, Qureshi said Pakistan and Afghanistan had a shared future. “Pakistan has played its due role in the development of Afghanistan, pledging projects worth one billion dollars,” he added.

Mentioning a number of examples in this regard, the minister said Afghanistan was a major trading partner of Pakistan, and the two countries carried out trade through rail and road. “Over 50,000 Afghans have studied in Pakistani educational institutions and are now working in the public and private sector in Afghanistan.

“We extended 6,000 fully-funded scholarships to Afghan students. To encourage female education, we [allocated] 100 seats to female candidates form Afghanistan,” he continued. Qureshi further said Afghanistan's importance in regional connectivity could not be ignored as completion of projects with Central Asian states such as TAPI and CASA-1000 was not possible without Afghanistan.