Northern Alliance leader Khalili to visit Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Karim Khalili, former Afghan vice-president, will be on a three-day visit to Pakistan starting on Monday, Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Khalili, who also served as the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, would lead a delegation during his three-day visit.
Khalili, the former second vice-president of Afghanistan, will be calling on Prime Minister Imran Khan, besides meeting National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and other high-level officials.
The chairman of the Hezb-e-Wahdat Islami Afghanistan, Khalili, is from Shia Hazara minority from the Northern Alliance and his visit is a part of Pakistan’s ongoing policy to reach out to political leadership in Afghanistan to forge common understanding on the Afghan peace process and deepen people-to-people ties.
His visit comes on heels of the start of intra-Afghan peace talks between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban.
Khalili is visiting Pakistan at a time when Afghanistan is rife with the rumors of formation of an interim government to help push the political reconciliation in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s fraternal ties with Afghanistan are rooted deep in shared history, faith, culture, values and traditions. PM Imran, on many occasions, said that Pakistan fully supports all efforts for peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan.
Pakistan remains steadfast in its support for an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.