'TTP on agenda' as Fazl gears up for visit to Afghanistan

• Fazl travelling to Afghanistan on Taliban-led administration's invite. 
• Ex-MNA Jamaluddin Mehsood to accompany Fazl during the visit. 
• Use of Afghan soil against Pakistan among issues to be discussed. 

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is set to embark on his maiden visit to Afghanistan in nearly 10 years tomorrow (Sunday), sources told Geo News.

The senior politician has banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pak-Afghan bilateral relationship among other issues on the visit's agenda, the sources said.

Interim Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Sardar Ahmed Jan Shakib on December 16, met the senior politician and invited him to visit Afghanistan. Later, Taliban government's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Fazl's upcoming visit.

This will be Fazl's first visit since the Taliban takeover of the war-torn country following the United States withdrawal in 2021.

Fazl first visited Afghanistan in 2013 during the government of former president Hamid Karzai.

The sources said that former member of the National Assembly Jamaluddin Mehsood will accompany the JUI-F chief on the trip.

Continuous use of Afghan soil against Pakistan — an issue that Islamabad has time again raised before the Taliban-led Afghan administration — will also be discussed on the visit, sources added.

Speaking on Geo News' programme "Jirga", which will be aired tomorrow, Fazl said that he has the government's mandate for the Afghanistan visit.

"I believe in negotiations but one can move towards a comprehensive strategy only by looking at the ground realities for talks with TTP," Fazl said.

The visit comes at a point when ties between the two countries have gone sour in the backdrop of a spike in terror incidents in Pakistan, mostly claimed by the TTP.

Pakistan remained a theatre of terrorism and violence in the year 2023 amid internal political conflicts, socioeconomic disparities, regional instability, and rising tensions with the militant groups operating in border areas adjacent to Afghanistan.

Fazl, on the other hand, has expressed grave concern over the peace and security situation in the country after his party came under attack thrice in the last six months due to being in the cross-hairs of banned outfits over the years.

The latest was a gun attack on the politician's convoy in Dera Ismail Khan, but fortunately, he remained unharmed as he wasn't present there.

Last year in September, senior JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah was injured in a blast — that wounded 10 others — in Balochistan’s Mastung area, while in July 2023, at least 40 JUI-F workers were killed in a suicide blast that targeted the party’s workers’ convention in Bajaur’s Khar.