The Speaker of the Afghanistan Parliament [Wolesi Jirga], Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, on Saturday called upon Pakistan to pay “serious attention” to problems with regard to trade and transit between India and Afghanistan.
Addressing a conference of Speakers of Parliaments in the SAARC (South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation) region, he said: “I would like to take this opportunity and inform you of the trade and transit problems between India and Afghanistan and some [other] parts of the world in Pakistan and I hope our Pakistani friends pay serious attention in this regard.”
Regret
Mr. Ibrahimi also expressed regret that war and “external interference” still continued in Afghanistan. “We [in Afghanistan] need the frank cooperation of all our Parliamentary member friends in this organisation [SAARC] and through them ask for their governments' straightforward cooperation in solving the problems of the Afghan people.”
Mr. Ibrahimi also stressed that a stable, peaceful and a self-reliant Afghanistan would be beneficial to the region as a whole, as that country was at the crossroad between the countries of South Asia and Central Asia.
SAARC initiative hailed
The Speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly, Fehmida Mirza, in her address, welcomed the initiative taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for holding the conference after a gap of six years and said the effort was not only timely but also vital for the strengthening and development of parliamentary traditions in South Asia.
She noted that the holding of the conference at Delhi was of great significance. “It is here that the founding fathers of South Asia, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. [B.R.] Ambedkar and A.K. Fazalul Haq fought for the freedoms that we, the Parliamentarians, are entrusted to protect and preserve.”
