Hekmatyar among Afghan political leaders in Pakistan for peace moot.

ISLAMABAD: Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and several other influential Afghan leader arrived in Pakistan on Friday for a conference that will focus on peace process and how to bridge trust gap between the two countries.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and presidential candidate Haneef Atamr, who were also invited to the conference to be held in Bhurban on Saturday (today), have welcomed the conference. Karzai said he is unable to attend the conference but hoped Pakistan will continue its efforts for bringing peace in Afghanistan.

Haneef Atmar's office in Kabul also welcomed the conference and said a high-level delegation of Atmar's election team has gone to Pakistan to attend the event. "We support the Pakistan-hosted meeting for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. We welcome Pakistan's sincere efforts for peace and hope that Pakistan will continue these efforts which could lead to intra-Afghan dialogue," a statement from Atmar's office said.

In another development, US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Qatar on Friday for a new round of negotiations with the Taliban political representatives, sources in Qatar told Daily Times. Both sides are scheduled to begin the seventh round on June 25, however a source said the talks can begin even earlier.

The Taliban and the US are confident to finalize what they had discussed in the last round in May. However, the recent tweets by the Taliban political spokesman that the US has agreed on complete withdrawal of the troops were disputed by Khalilzad, who said the US seeks a comprehensive peace agreement, not a withdrawal agreement. "A comprehensive peace agreement is made up of four inter-connected parts: counter-terrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan negotiations that lead to a political...