The visit of Pakistan’s nine-member parliamentary delegation, headed by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, to Afghanistan was postponed after the plane carrying the parliamentarians could not land at Kabul airport due to security reasons on Thursday and returned back.
Earlier, Asad Qaiser and his delegation left for Kabul from Islamabad on Thursday morning to hold wide-ranging discussions including Afghan peace and cross-border trade. “Speaker’s visit to Kabul postponed as airport was closed due to security threat. The plane was about to descent when the control tower informed of the closure of airport,” Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a tweet.
The delegation was travelling on the invitation of Chairman Wolsi Jirga Afghanistan, Mir Rehman Rahmani. During the visit, Qaiser was scheduled to meet his Afghan counterpart, as well as the chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, Dr Abudullah Abdullah, the Afghan commerce minister, the chairman of the Afghanistan chamber of federation of commerce and industry and Afghan lawmakers. New dates for the visit have not yet been announced.