MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan: Pakistan started fencing its border with Afghanistan to thwart the illegal movement of people and goods, military officials said.
Arab News visited the fencing area in North Waziristan and was among the media which was briefed by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Friday regarding the fencing process.
The two countries share a mostly porous 2,600-km-long border. Military officials said 160 km of the border have already been fenced.
The whole fence will be completed by December 2019 at an estimated cost of 56 billion Pakistani rupees ($505.68 million).
The aim is “effective border control” that is “managed and regulated as per international best practices,” a military officer said.
A total of 750 border posts and forts will be built; 140 have already been built and 15 are under construction, officials said.
Pakistan plans to bolster its Frontier Corps (FC), which will take full responsibility for border security, said a senior FC officer.
A terminal is being built at Ghulam Khan, the third-largest border crossing with Afghanistan, which will reopen within a month after being closed since June 2014 due to a major Pakistani military operation, an official said.
“The problem is they (the Afghans) don’t have effective (border) control. Most of the areas on their side aren’t under their control,” said a military officer.
There are 93 Pakistani checkpoints along the border in North Waziristan, but only 11 on the Afghan side of the region, he added.
Pakistan started fencing its northwestern border with Afghanistan in 2017.
Pak-Afghan border fencing to complete by end of 2019: Pakistan Army
Pak-Afghan border fencing to complete by end of 2019: Pakistan Army
Pakistan, seven Muslim nations back Palestinian technocratic body, stress Gaza-West Bank unity
- The National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip was announced on January 14
- Muslim nations call for consolidation of the ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven other Muslim-majority countries on Thursday welcomed the formation of a temporary Palestinian technocratic body to administer Gaza, stressing that it must manage daily civilian affairs while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank amid the ongoing peace efforts.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates said the newly announced National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip would play a central role during the second phase of a broader peace plan aimed at ending the war and paving the way for Palestinian self-governance.
“The Ministers emphasize the importance of the National Committee commencing its duties in managing the day-to-day affairs of the people of Gaza, while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ensuring the unity of Gaza, and rejecting any attempts to divide it,” the statement said.
The committee, announced on Jan. 14, is a temporary transitional body established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 and is to operate in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, the ministers said.
The statement said the move forms part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, which the ministers said they supported, praising Trump’s efforts to end the war, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces and prevent the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The top leaders of all eight Muslim countries attended a meeting with Trump in New York last September, shortly before he unveiled the Gaza peace plan.
The ministers also called for the consolidation of the ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza, early recovery and reconstruction and the eventual return of the Palestinian Authority to administer the territory, leading to a just and sustainable peace based on UN resolutions and a two-state solution on pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
