Pakistan postpones Afghan peace conference

The conference would now be held after Eid Al-Adha while the new dates of the said conference will be announced later.

“Pakistan is hosting the Afghan Peace Conference on July 17-19 … to provide momentum to the ongoing efforts for peace in Afghanistan,” Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri earlier said at the weekly media briefing.

Afghanistan’s political leadership was also invited to the conference.

According to the Afghan news agency, 21 prominent Afghan leaders including Abdullah Abdullah, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Younus Qanooni, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Salahuddin Rabbani, Ismail Khan, Ata Mohammad Noor, Sayed Hamed Gailani, Sayed Eshaq Gailani, Batur Dostum and Mirwais Yasini were invited to the conference in Islamabad.

Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had a telephonic conversation with Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai and invited him to attend the conference.

“The most important Afghan leadership, including Hamid Karzai, has been invited to attend the proposed conference. It is hoped that new hopes for a solution to Afghanistan’s problems will be awakened as a result of this important development, he said.