Pak Ulema team in Afghanistan for talks with TTP

ISLAMABAD: The series of talks between Pakistan security officials and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continue as a delegation of Pakistani Ulema reached Afghanistan on Monday.

The sources said that the Pakistani Ulema team was visiting Afghanistan on the invitation of Emirate Islami Afghanistan. The delegation includes Mufti Taqi Usmani, Hanif Jalendhri, Maulana Tayyab Punjpir, Maulvi Anwarul Haq and Mufti Ghulamur Rehman.

According to sources, the Pakistani Ulema delegation will hold meetings with the leadership of Emirate Islami Afghanistan and TTP leaders. The delegation departed for Afghanistan from Islamabad on Monday.

Earlier, President Dr Arif Alvi reiterated Pakistan’s offer to provide virtual and online educational facilities to the Afghan students through the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP).

Talking to Mufti Taqi Usmani, after being informed that Mufti Sahib is going to Afghanistan for discussions with the Afghan leadership, the president said since Afghanistan did not possess nationwide internet connectivity, therefore, initially the education materials of AIOU and VUP could be communicated to the Afghan students, both male and female, through its television network.

The offer was made when the Afghan minister of education had met the president and said that higher education was in dire straits in Afghanistan, the President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release.

On various occasions, the president had communicated the Government of Pakistan’s offers of providing online and virtual educational facilities to Afghanistan during his meetings with the Afghan ambassador and counsel generals, and with other Afghan government leadership, directly or indirectly, through his interaction with them. The president said the government and the state of Pakistan believed in providing equal educational opportunities for women, on a par with its male population. “Iqra in Quran is for all Muslims and is not gender specific,” he added. He further said that keeping in view the specific socio-political concerns of Afghanistan, women could be imparted education by making special arrangements as deemed appropriate and as was initially pledged by the current Afghan leadership. He said Islam emphasised imparting education to all without making any distinction between men and women.

He further observed if Afghanistan was taking measures to provide education to its female population according to its own preferences, the far-reaching initiative should also be properly publicised through all channels of media and communication tools to rest of the world to allay their concerns in that regard.

Pakistan wants peace and development in Afghanistan and it cannot happen without development of their own human resource, he added.