Afghan Prez Ghani to visit Pak today on PM Khan's invitation

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani will begin his two-day official visit to Pakistan today on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement said, "On the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani will be visiting Pakistan on 27-28 June 2019. President Ghani will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including Ministers, Advisors, Senior Officials and businessmen."

"During the visit, President Dr Arif Alvi will have a meeting with President Ghani while Prime Minister Imran Khan will hold delegation-level talks. The wide-ranging talks between the two sides would focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation in diverse areas - including political, trade, economic, security, peace and reconciliation, education and people-to-people exchanges," it added.

It will be President Ghani's third visit to Pakistan which follows the recently held first review session of the landmark Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

The APAPPS, a part of the Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral engagement framework, provides a comprehensive and structured mechanism to enhance engagement between counterpart institutions of the two countries. APAPPS is comprised of five working groups on politico-diplomatic, military, intelligence, economic and trade and refugees issues.

The action plan became operational last May under then Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ghani with both sides hoping that its implementation would contribute to promoting peace in the region, Dawn reported.

The Foreign Ministry here stressed that Ghani's visit will "follow the recently held first review session of the APAPPS."

"President Ghani will also travel to Lahore where he will participate in a business forum attended by business representatives from both countries," the statement read.

"The people of Pakistan and Afghanistan are bound by fraternal ties reinforced by historical, religious, linguistic and cultural affinities. Closer engagement between the leaders will help foster a stronger and multi-faceted relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan," it added.

The visit becomes doubly important after the first Afghan peace conference titled 'Lahore Process' held on June 22 in Bhurban Murree.

According to ARY News, more than 50 delegates, including heads of all Afghan political parties and the political advisor to Ghani, attended the meet. Former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, senators and members of Afghan parliament were also in attendance.

Ghani had earlier undertaken a bilateral visit to Pakistan in November 2014 and subsequently, came to attend the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process (HoA) Ministerial Conference in Islamabad in December 2015, Gulf News reported.