![Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan walks alongside President Ashraf Ghani at the Afghan Presidential Palace on November 19 in Kabul. [Afghan Presidential Palace]](/cnmi_st/images/2020/11/19/27126-khan-739_416.webp)
KABUL -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in a visit to Kabul Thursday (November 19) pledged to do everything possible to help reduce violence in Afghanistan.
Khan's first visit to Kabul since being elected prime minister in 2018 comes amid surging violence across Afghanistan that has worsened despite peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban that launched September 12 in Doha, Qatar.
"We the people of Pakistan, the government of Pakistan have only one concern... that we want peace [in Afghanistan]," Khan said at a joint press conference after meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
"We feel that people of Afghanistan have suffered for four decades, and if ever a human community needed peace, it is Afghanistan and it is now," he said.
"Pakistan will do everything, whatever is possible, we will do to help reduce this violence and in fact move towards a ceasefire," he said.
"We notice with concern that the level of violence despite the talks in Qatar ... is rising," Khan said.
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence chief Gen. Faiz Hamid and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi accompanied Khan.
Both sides agreed to form committees to improve communication between the two countries.
"We have come to an understanding that a shared vision regarding co-operation is not only essential for relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan but a harbinger of regional co-operation [and] connectivity," Ghani said at the press conference.
"Our common focus and what inspires us both is poverty eradication, the empowerment of citizens of our countries within the frameworks of our Islamic constitutions," he said.
"A comprehensive political settlement for an enduring peace within the framework of our values, our constitution and the Islamic Republic is the way to the future," he said.
Ghani said he would soon visit Pakistan.
The United States and International Community should increase their pressures on Pakistan in order that the country help Afghanistan in bringing peace. I think if there was no pressure from the International Community, Pakistan would never have made the promise of peace with Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been shouting during the past twenty years that solution to Afghanistan's war is in Pakistan, and all the safe havens of terrorists are in Pakistan, Osama was killed in Pakistan, Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor was killed in Pakistan; however, foreigners and American soldiers were fighting in Afghanistan and they killed thousands of innocent people. Fighting in Afghanistan needs to be stopped and the roots of war in Afghanistan should be eliminated. Roots of Afghanistan's war are in Pakistan.
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Imran Khan must prove in action that he is in favor of peace in Afghanistan, close all terrorist training centers in that country, take action against terrorists’ instructors and bring them to justice. After Imran Khan does this, then we will say that he is really honest in his speeches. If the government of Pakistan, which is led by Imran Khan, makes sincere efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan may forget all the evils that Pakistan has done in Afghanistan and will love Pakistan more than India. We have a lot in common with Pakistan than India. Pakistan, like Afghanistan, is an Islamic country. Pakistan is very close to us and we have the longest border with this country. We have other cultural and language commonalities with this country. There should be no border between us and Pakistan. We should be able to travel to Pakistan without visa and passport and Pakistanis should be able to travel to Afghanistan without passport and visa. We desire such a day and pray to Almighty God to solve our problem with Pakistan and we not call each other our enemy and be friend with each other.
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