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ISLAMABAD: Leader of Hizb-e-Islami of Afghanistan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has arrived in Islamabad on Monday for a three-day visit for talks on the Afghan peace process.
During the visit, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will call on the Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi and will meet the Chairman Senate, Speaker National Assembly, Foreign Minister and other dignitaries.
He will deliver a talk at a policy think-tank and interact with the media. The visit of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will provide an opportunity for exchange of views on the Afghan peace process and strengthening of Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral relations as well as people-to-people interaction.
According to the Foreign Office, Pakistan has consistently supported an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.
The statement added that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s visit will further strengthen bilateral ties and people-to-people linkages between the two brotherly countries and help advance efforts for peace and stability.
Hekmatayar is a former warlord who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and later served as the country’s prime minister. He spent years in exile in Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban were overthrown in 2001 and returned to the country after signing a peace deal in 2016.
The visit comes nearly three weeks after the official Islamabad trip of High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) chairman Abdullah Abdullah.
The visit was announced by Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, who wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday that the Hizb-e-Islami leader will meet with the Pakistani prime minister, president and other top officials.
He will also meet the Jamaat-e-Islami chief Senator Siraj ul Haq. Hekmatyar’s son, Habib ur Rehman, who will be in the delegation, has described the visit as very important because of Pakistan’s key role in the peace process.
