Pak PM Abbasi to visit Afghanistan next week

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will pay a visit to Afghanistan next week and will hold talks with various Afghan officials, Afghanistan's CEO office announced on Friday.

According to TOLOnews, Prime Minister Abbasi's upcoming visit to Afghanistan is aimed at addressing the efforts to combat terrorism and also to improve ties between the two countries, Jawed Faisal, deputy spokesman to CEO Abdullah Abdullah said in a statement.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal said that Prime Minister Abbasi would visit the war-torn country very soon.

The dates for the visit is currently being worked out by the officials.

The proposed visit to Afghanistan comes against the backdrop of Pakistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) Nasser Khan Janjua visit to Kabul last week, where he met President Ashraf Ghani.

The Afghanistan president had extended an official invitation to Prime Minister Abbasi to visit Afghanistan, in what was seen as an effort by Kabul to normalise its icy relations with Islamabad.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained frosty in recent years due to the terrorist activities of the Taliban and Haqqani Network carried out from the former's land. Kabul contests that the two militant groups are supported by Islamabad and it does very little to stop them.

Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghanistan to stop the blame game and asked for its co-operation in combating terrorism.

Last month, the Afghan President had made a peace offer to the Taliban in the Kabul Process Conference, which also included the recognition of the militant group as a political entity.

However, the group is yet to officially respond to President Ghani's offer.