Pakistan, US should join hands to achieve peace, stability in Afghanistan: Ahsan Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, (MILLAT ONLINE):Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said since both Pakistan and the United States were stakeholders in peace and stability in Afghanistan hence they should join hands to achieve this goal.
Expressing Pakistan’s commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan, he said, this called for Pakistan and the US to work together as if they failed even for a day such a situation will translate into a “big bonus” for the elements who were trying to destabilize the region.
The interior minister was speaking at a formal ceremony held at the US Embassy to celebrate the US National Day and the President’s Day on February 22 .
He said both Pakistan and the US have special relationship and geo-politics of the region have made it inseparable, therefore they need to cooperate for peace and stability in the region.
The minister said if there was peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan would get dividends and if there was instability there, it would suffer.
Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistan and the United Stated needed to work for strengthening the longstanding relationship.
He said that trade between the two countries was now at the highest level because the private sectors from the two sides had done a good job. Now it was for the diplomats of two countries to achieve such level of cooperation in other fields as well, he added.
The Interior Minister appreciated the US role in giving scholarships to Pakistani students under the Fulbright Program, adding he wanted more students from Pakistan to be in the best US universities.
US Ambassador David Hale in his remarks on the occasion said that America had built roads, dams, hospitals and schools in Pakistan and wanted it a safe and prosperous country both for Pakistanis and the Americans.
He said the United States had spent billions of dollars for development and upkeep of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
The Interior Minister also joined the US ambassador in cutting the cake to mark the day.
Among others, the ceremony was attended by a large number of people including ambassadors of various countries, politicians and members of the parliament.
Hot topics of participants were the Supreme Court’s Wednesday verdict declaring former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif ineligible to hold the office of the president of the PML(N).
The first president of the United States George Washington’s birthday was Feb 22, 1732 which is state holiday and is celebrated as National Day and Presidents’ Day since 1885.
In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which moved several federal holidays to Mondays. During the debate on the bill, it was proposed to have birthday of George Washington be renamed as Presidents’ Day to honor the birthdays of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.