ISLAMABAD: The visiting US Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Jarrett Blanc held a meeting with Finance Minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar here. He was accompanied by senior officials of the US embassy.
The also exchanged views about the planned visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to USA. Jarret Blanc said the US government and people looked forward to the visit and outlined the areas of energy, trade and investment for due focus during the visit with a view to enhancing overall bilateral cooperation. They also had discussion on the meeting of Pak-US Economic Working Group which is likely to be held later this year.
Jarrett Blanc apprised Finance Minister Dar of his meeting with the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani and said he had a strong feeling that Pak-Afghan relations would move beyond the security domain and flourish in the spheres of economy, trade and people to people contacts in future.
The Finance Minister said Pakistan had close and friendly ties with Afghanistan and was actively pursuing projects aimed at promoting regional connectivity. He cited the projects of TAPI and CASA-1000 in this regard. The Minister said Pakistan and Afghanistan have covered lot of ground on the issue of transit trade. We look forward to Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission meeting later this year.
The Minister shared with Jarrett Blanc, progress achieved by the operation Zarbe Azb and said the government was now also focusing on rehabilitation of the temporarily displaced persons. The whole operation and rehab exercise was estimated to cost 1.9 billion dollars.
