ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday offered Afghanistan to build a partnership for the future to ensure peaceful coexistence and lasting stability in the region.
“We are joined by geography. We cannot walk away. We have to live together and we have to carve out our future collectively,” he said while addressing a session of the two-day summit on Afghan refugees here in Islamabad.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees had jointly organized the summit with Pakistan to mark 40 years since the beginning of Afghan displacement. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the conference to express solidarity with Afghan refugees and recognize Pakistan’s efforts to host them.
“We need to build a partnership for the future … we can easily look at faults, point fingers, but there is a history of coexistence, caring and sharing,” the foreign minister said while conveying this message to Afghan leadership.
Pakistan is the world’s second-largest host of refugees with over 2 million Afghans living in different parts of the country since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
Qureshi also lauded the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces where majority of the Afghan refugees have been living for their support to the displaced people.
“The government alone couldn’t have done it,” he said. “The government’s resources and ability was limited.”
The minister said that the local values and customs also helped ensure that the refugees were not discriminated at any stage in the country. “The refugees were allowed to move out, ply their transport and do trade without any discrimination,” he added.
The refugee summit comes at a time when the United States and Taliban are said to be close to a peace deal. The US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has also attended the conference and met the civil and military leadership of Pakistan to discuss the future of Afghan refugees after reaching a peace agreement with the Taliban by the end of this month.
However, analysts say it is highly unlikely that the refugees will start moving to their homeland immediately after the US-Taliban peace deal since it will take time to restore peace and build necessary infrastructure to accommodate over three million refugees back home.
“The refugee families have established their businesses and relationships with the locals, so it won’t be easy for them to pack up,” Zaigham Khan, a senior analyst from tribal districts, told Arab News.
However, he added that Afghan refugees would serve as ambassadors of Pakistan when they returned to their home country. “Our people have looked after them as their brothers and sisters during difficult times,” he added.
Pakistan wants to build 'partnership' with Afghanistan for lasting peace
https://arab.news/z96ke
Pakistan wants to build 'partnership' with Afghanistan for lasting peace
- Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says both countries need to carve out their future collectively
- Analysts say Afghan refugees will serve as Pakistan’s ambassadors after returning to their home country
At ECO meeting, Pakistan proposes ‘Regional Innovation Hub’ to curb natural disasters
- Pakistan hosts high-level 10th ECO Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction in Islamabad
- Innovation hub to focus on early warning technologies, risk informed infrastructure planning
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has proposed to set up a “Regional Innovation Hub on Disaster Risk Reduction” that focuses on early warning technologies and risk informed infrastructure planning, the Press Information Department (PID) said on Wednesday, as Islamabad hosts a high-level meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
The ECO’s 10th Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is being held from Jan. 21-22 at the headquarters of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Pakistan’s capital.
The high-level regional forum brings together ministers, and senior officials from ECO member states, representatives of the ECO Secretariat and regional and international partner organizations. The event is aimed to strengthen collective efforts toward enhancing disaster resilience across the ECO region, the PID said.
“Key agenda items include regional cooperation on early warning systems, disaster risk information management, landslide hazard zoning, inclusive disaster preparedness initiatives, and Pakistan’s proposal to establish a Regional Innovation Hub on Disaster Risk Reduction, focusing on early warning technologies, satellite data utilization, and risk-informed infrastructure planning,” the statement said.
The meeting was attended by delegations from ECO member states including Pakistan, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Representatives of regional and international organizations and development partners were also in attendance.
Discussions focused on enhancing regional coordination, harmonizing disaster risk reduction frameworks, and strengthening collective preparedness against transboundary and climate-induced hazards impacting the ECO region, the PID said.
ECO members states such as Pakistan, Türkiye, Afghanistan and others have faced natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes in recent years that have killed tens of thousands of people.
Heavy rains triggered catastrophic floods in Pakistan in 2022 and 2025 that killed thousands of people and caused damages to critical infrastructure, inflicting losses worth billions of dollars.
Islamabad has since then called on regional countries to join hands to cooperate to avert future climate disasters and promote early warning systems to avoid calamities in future.
