VOA News / January 30, 2017 The recent exodus of Afghan refugees from Pakistan has also deprived the local carpet weaving industry of skillful labor. The Pakistani city Quetta, once known as a bustling market for Afghan carpets, is now left with only a handful of weavers. Even they are barely managing to survive due
1TV: Pakistan setting up a “political office’ for the Afghan Taliban in Islamabad, a government source said, following the Moscow trilateral meeting between China, Pakistan, and Russia on Afghanistan in December last year. The Taliban have already an official overseas office in the Qatari, capital, Doha, as part of a move to launch a political arm for
The Huffington Post: You cannot talk to Gulalai in the language of her adopted country. Despite living in Pakistan for the past 17 years, she has been unable to properly learn Urdu and remains confined to her native Pashto. As a member of the transgender community, language is just one of the barriers she faces. “I
VOA News January 25, 2017
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan January 23, 2017 The governor of Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand Province said Iranians and Pakistanis have recently met with Taliban insurgents involved in fighting Afghan forces. Governor Hayatullah Hayat told Radio Free Afghanistan on January 22 that “Iranian interference [in Afghan affairs] has increased” recently, noting the meeting with Taliban fighters in
Ayaz Gul VOA News January 19, 2017 ISLAMABAD — While misgivings and distrust marred and further complicated Pakistan’s relations with the United States over the past eight years, officials in Islamabad appear upbeat about a more “substantive” and mutually “advantageous” engagement with the incoming administration of Donald Trump. President Barack Obama’s administration provided billions of dollars
Ayaz Gul VOA News January 18, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has called on Afghan leaders to review their “fragmented” approach to peace talks with the Taliban on containing and ending the resilient insurgency, instead of blaming Islamabad for the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. Sartaj Aziz, chief foreign policy advisor to the Pakistani prime minister, in
Aimal Faizi: For Afghanistan and the Afghans, Mr. Obama was a President of contradiction whose Afghan policy proved markedly disastrous. He wrongly believed that he would win the War on Terror militarily and by appeasing the military establishment in Pakistan. His successor, Donald Trump, should change course in Afghanistan. For Mr. Trump’s administration, it is imperative
Live Mint: Pakistan has managed to sell the flawed theory that the Taliban can be used to fight the Islamic State – After the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, including the one which killed five UAE diplomats, Russia has “(urged) the warring parties in Afghanistan, primarily the leaders of the Taliban movement, to renounce violence and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 16, 2017 Pakistani military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that his troops have destroyed “all safe havens” for terrorists in Pakistan. Bajwa also told Ghani in a telephone call on January 15 that the two countries must cooperate on security issues to deter cross-border