Makkah-based organization to host Pak-Afghan ulema meeting on Thursday

This file photo shows Pakistan's religious affairs minister, Pir Noorul Haq Qadri (seventh from left), during a World Muslim League conference of Muslim scholars in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on May 28, 2019. (Photo courtesy: World Muslim League/Twitter)

• The World Muslim League will host the video conference to enable religious scholars from Pakistan and Afghanistan to discuss peace in the region
• The Pakistani prime minister’s adviser on religious harmony calls Afghanistan’s stability vital for lasting peace in his own country

ISLAMABAD: A Makkah-based organization will bring together religious scholars from Pakistan and Afghanistan through a video link during this week, announced a senior Pakistani official on Tuesday, adding that the conference will enable both sides to discuss regional peace and other issues of mutual interest. 
“The online gathering will make it possible for Pakistan’s religious scholars to send a clear message to the world that we are always striving for peace and will do everything we can to make it happen,” the prime minister’s adviser on religious harmony, Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, told Arab News. 
In a statement issued by his office earlier in the day, Ashrafi said the World Muslim League would arrange the event on Thursday.
“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are playing a significant role in making this conference happen,” he told Arab News. “The World Muslim League has assumed the responsibility of arranging the event on the instructions of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.” 
Ashrafi said peace in Afghanistan was vital for Pakistan’s own lasting stability, adding that his country had played a major role in helping its northwestern neighbor while suffering the consequences of the conflict in Afghanistan. 
“This region has been in a state of turmoil for the last 40 years,” he said. “It has witnessed a lot of bloodshed, and Pakistan itself has lost about 80,000 people to bring about peace in the neighborhood by fighting against extremism and terrorism.” 
Pakistani officials have frequently denied in recent weeks that their country wants to interfere in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.
In a recent interview, Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government had changed Pakistan’s policy of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and was willing to work with any administration in Kabul. 
The country’s national security adviser, Moeed Yusuf, also expressed his concern regarding a “hostile” international media, saying that his country was doing everything for peace in the region and would not allow anyone to “scapegoat” it for any possible failings in Afghanistan.