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Afghan families would leave country if girls’ schools do not reopen: Hekmatyar
Many Afghan families would leave their country if secondary girls’ schools do not reopen, Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said on Friday.
Hekmatyar, in his Friday sermon, said that a decision should be made regarding the issue of girls’ education at the gathering of religious scholars in Kabul.
“What does Islam say? What does our religion say? What do our imams and jurists say? What does the Qur’an and Hadith say?” Hekmatyar asked. “A decision should be made in this regard and it should be acceptable to all Afghans.”
“If the issue is not addressed, many families would leave Afghanistan only because girls’ are deprived of education here,” Hekmatyar said.
More than 3,000 religious scholars and ethnic leaders have gathered in the Loya Jirga hall in Kabul in what is said to be the largest gathering since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) took over in August last year.
While primary girls’ schools reopened in March, IEA didn’t allow the secondary ones to reopen.
In his speech, Hekmatyar also said that other issues including establishing parliament and drafting a new constitution should also have been on the agenda of the meeting.
Hizb-e-Islami leader also said that the government should clear its policy on political parties in Afghanistan.
On freedom of speech, Hekmatyar said that censorship would help corruption, a menace which could lead to collapse of governments.
Officials from the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce and Investment say that 294,000 tons of fresh and dried fruit have been exported from the province to foreign countries over the past year.
According to them, the total value of these exports amounts to $519 million.
Abdulbaqi Bina, Deputy Head of the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce and Investment, says the products were exported to India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada and several other countries.
Meanwhile, fresh and dried fruit traders are calling on the government to provide alternative transit routes, new markets, and greater facilitation for obtaining visas and transportation for the export of these products.
This comes as nearly 59,000 tons of fresh and dried fruit were exported from Kandahar to foreign countries
The case of 87 Afghan students seeking extensions of their study visas has reached the Islamabad High Court, with the students also asking for protection from arrest, detention and deportation, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.
According to Pakistani journalist Tahir Khan, the students have petitioned the court to order the government to extend their visas and prevent law-enforcement agencies from harassing, arresting, detaining or deporting them solely because their previous study visas have expired.
During Friday’s hearing, lawyer Aimal Khan Mandokhel told the court that Pakistan’s Interior Ministry had issued study visas to the Afghan students about a year ago. However, the students say authorities have since stopped extending existing visas and issuing new ones.
The Afghan Students Union at the International Islamic University Islamabad has also said Pakistani authorities have suspended study visa extensions for Afghan students for an extended period. It added that several students have allegedly been arrested and deported in recent months.
The hearing was adjourned following an exchange between Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and lawyer Aimal Khan Mandokhel.
The case is expected to be heard again later this month.
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Wali Khan urges Pakistan to resolve tensions with Afghanistan through diplomacy
Wali Khan called on Islamabad to pursue a serious diplomatic approach to de-escalate tensions with Afghanistan and other neighboring countries.
Aimal Wali Khan, the President of Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has urged the Pakistani government to address tensions with neighboring countries, particularly Afghanistan, through serious diplomatic engagement.
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad on Thursday, Wali Khan said the ongoing tensions are causing the greatest harm to ordinary people, especially those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“War is not a permanent solution to any problem,” he stressed.
Wali Khan called on Islamabad to pursue a serious diplomatic approach to de-escalate tensions with Afghanistan and other neighboring countries.
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