Pak-Afghan relations to see better days

Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Omer Zakhilwal has said that better days were ahead in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and the current misgivings, grievances and negativities were short-lived.
Talking to APP at the close of 3000 HEC scholarships award
ceremony to Afghan students at a local hotel here on Thursday,
he said the bilateral misunderstandings were sure to vanish,
adding that one or two decades of misgivings was a short period
of time in the lives of nations.
The Afghan ambassador said that things were moving in the right
direction on the diplomatic front, adding that he was hopeful of better ties between
the two countries.
About the Pak-Afghan relations, he said the relations would take a
natural shape, involving people-to-people contacts. He said that the
people-to-people relations between the two nations could not be destroyed by
anybody, stressing that the tribal, linguistic, religious common historic relationships
in trade and commerce will re-emerge into a strong bond.
Omer Zakhilwal said that better bilateral relations were very important
for both the countries and the students studying on Pakistani scholarships would
serve as agents of change.
The diplomat said that the relations between the two countries were
multi-dimensional and these three thousand scholarship-holders would multiply
into thousands more when they would serve Afghanistan in different capacities in
near future.
He said the bonds these students had established in Pakistan during
their stay here would help strengthen the ties between the brotherly countries. He
said the experience and expertise they had got in Pakistan would help reconstruct
Afghanistan and rebuild relations between the two counties.
To a question, he said that there was no better way of strengthening the
bilateral relations between the two countries than extending educational
scholarships to Afghan students, adding that these students were the future
politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats of Afghanistan and their Pakistani
classfellows would enjoy the same status which would help bring the two nations
closer.
Earlier, addressing the ceremony the Afghan ambassador said that
both the nations had common heroes in Ahmad Shah Abdali and Mehmood
Ghazanvi, adding that the great saint of Lahore Hazrat Ali Hajveri (Data Gunj
Bakhsh) had his origins in Afghanistan.
He said that the Poet of the East Allama Muhammad Iqbal enjoyed equal
popularity in Afghanistan as a poet and thinker, adding that the scholarship
programme was rightly named after Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
He said Pakistan and Afghanistan were the only two countries in the
world which enjoyed such multi-dimensional relations and enjoyed such strong
centuries old culture, heritage, geography, language, religion, trade and
commercial ties.
Dr Omer said the ups and downs in the relations did not reflect the
wishes of the people of the two countries, adding that the relationships were sure
to improve in the coming days.
Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Advisor to Afghan HEC
Amanullah Faqri, Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Zahid Nasrullah Khan,
Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, VCs of public and private universities from
Pakistan and Afghainstan and a large number of Afghan students in Pakistan
attended the ceremony.

Source: APP