Pakistan to resume consular services in Kabul
The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul on Saturday said it will resume consular services on Sunday, after it had indefinitely closed down its consular office last month, citing security concerns.
The closure came amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and followed an exchange of fire in a border area, and claims by both countries that their respective diplomats were being harassed. Bilateral relations have long been marred by mistrust and suspicion.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan can’t afford to be at loggerheads even for a few weeks because they depend on each other for a variety of reasons, such as bilateral trade and the arrival of hundreds of Afghan patients and students to Pakistan on a daily basis,” Irfanullah Khan, a scholar at Pakistan’s Hazara University, told Arab News.
On Nov. 3, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Afghan chargé d’affaires in Islamabad and conveyed its concerns over the safety and security of its diplomats in Kabul.
The following day, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said it would “seriously investigate” the complaint. It added that the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad was “mistreated” by Pakistan’s spy agency. Hikmat Safi, an adviser to Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, said the resumption of consular services is important because the Afghan business community, students and patients were suffering on account of not being able to get visas for travel to Pakistan.
“It’s a positive gesture … Common people suffer if tensions persist between the two neighbors,” Safi told Arab News. “We want both governments to find permanent solutions to their outstanding issues in the larger interests of the people of the two countries.”
HIGHLIGHT
The closure came amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and followed an exchange of fire in a border area.