ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, has said Islamabad was “very actively” trying to push the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents to resume peace talks for a political settlement in the war-torn country, Pakistan’s state run media reported on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Taliban said this week the group planned to present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government side as soon as next month even as insurgents make major territorial gains in the breach left by departing foreign forces.
Hundreds of Afghan security force members have fled into neighboring Tajikistan in the face of Taliban advances since the United States vacated its main Afghan base, centerpiece of US and NATO might for almost two decades in the country, as part of a plan to withdraw all foreign troops by September 11.
While the transfer of Bagram Air Base to the Afghan army added momentum to a Taliban drive to seize control over new districts, Taliban leaders renewed the long stalled talks with Afghan government envoys in Qatar’s capital Doha last week.
“As the United States completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan is very actively involved in trying to move the Afghan government and Taliban to resume talks for a political settlement of the conflict,” Radio Pakistan quoted Akram as saying in response to questions about Afghanistan during a briefing with UN correspondents.
“Pakistan had in the first instance facilitated talks between the United States and Taliban in Doha and then between Afghan government and Taliban in its efforts to promote a settlement that would bring the long-running war to an end,” Radio Pakistan said.
Referring to a report about a Taliban peace plan to be presented to the Afghan government, the Pakistani envoy said: “It is a good proposal on which negotiations could move forward.”
Pakistan says ‘actively’ pushing for resumption of talks between Taliban, Kabul
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Pakistan says ‘actively’ pushing for resumption of talks between Taliban, Kabul
- Taliban say planning to present written peace proposal to Afghan government as soon as next month
- Taliban leaders renewed long stalled talks with Afghan government envoys in Qatar’s capital Doha last week
Pakistan launches final polio drive of 2025 as official calls disease persistence an embarrassment
- Sindh chief minister says Muslim-majority countries have eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination
- Sindh chief minister says Muslim-majority countries have eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched its final nationwide polio vaccination campaign of 2025 on Monday as a senior government official described the continued presence of the disease in the country as an embarrassment and said the only way to eradicate it was to vaccinate every child under the age of five.
The campaign, which will run from Dec. 15 to Dec. 21, aims to administer oral polio drops to more than 45 million children across the country, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC).
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio has not yet been eradicated.
“There is only one way to eliminate this disease, and the entire world has adopted it: every child under the age of five must be given two drops of the polio vaccine,” Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said while inaugurating the campaign in Karachi.
“There is no other way.”
Shah said it was “quite embarrassing” that polio continued to persist in Pakistan, noting that around 30 children had been infected so far this year, including nine cases in Sindh province.
He added that many Muslim-majority countries had successfully eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination of children.
To ensure the safety of vaccination teams, authorities have deployed around 21,000 security personnel nationwide, including about 1,000 women, to accompany frontline polio workers during the campaign, Shah said.
According to the NEOC, more than 23 million children will be vaccinated in Punjab, over 10.6 million in Sindh, about 7.2 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and more than 2.6 million in Balochistan.
The campaign also targets around 460,000 children in Islamabad, 228,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and more than 760,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Health authorities have urged parents to cooperate with vaccination teams, open their doors to polio workers and ensure that all children under five receive two drops of the vaccine, while also completing routine immunization schedules for infants up to 15 months old.
Pakistan has struggled for decades to eradicate polio due to misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and security challenges, despite repeated nationwide immunization drives.
