Reg: No 352 Volume No. 3759 Sunday December 17, 2017 Qaws 26, 1396 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 15/-Afs

Quote of the DayThe foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

Diogenes Laertius

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Afghan and Pakistani officials and MPs stress the need for stronger ties between Kabul and

Islamabad to ensure regional security.

KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi met on Saturday with a Pakistani delegation, discussing Kabul-Islamabad ties and stability in Afghanistan.Pakistani parliamentarians said Pakistan helped Afghans during the jihad against the then USSR, but they said Pa-kistan has not cooperated sincerely in the fight against cor-ruption.The delegation stressed the need for strengthened ties be-

KABUL - National Security Ad-visor (NSA) discussed imple-mentation of executive political cooperation framework with his United States counterpart on Saturday, a statement from Na-tional Security Council said.According to the statement received by Pajhwok Afghan News, Mohammad Hanif Atmar discussed the implementation of executive political cooperation framework with his US counter-part, McMaster during a video conference today. The two sides also talked about security and political situation in the region, peace in Afghanistan, counterterrorism and re-gional cooperation during the video conference, the source said. Atmar and MacMaster also agreed on continued contacts through

tween Kabul and Islamabad.“Problems and challenges have to be led by our people, and we strongly believe that for a stable Pakistan, for a pros-perous Pakistan, we need to see a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. This is the concern of people at home,” said Shazia Mary, member of Pakistan’s parliament and former minister of information and culture of Pakistan.The Wolesi Jirga speaker said ...(More on P4)...(1)

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon warned Paki-stan of taking “unilateral steps” in case of “diver-gence” on the war against terrorism.In a report to the Congress, the Pentagon said the US had a “willing and able partner” in President Ashraf Ghani to implement the South Asia Policy of President Donald Trump.The Pentagon in its semiannual report “Enhanc-ing Security and Stability in Afghanistan” said that under the new strategy, the US would con-tinue to support the Afghan government and se-curity forces against terrorists.The US would be a part of a whole-of-govern-ment, regional strategy to isolate the Taliban from sources of external support and to mitigate any malign influence from outside actors. “Our military-to-military relationship with Paki-stan remains critical to the success of our mutual interests in the region. To move forward, we must see fundamental changes in the way Pakistan deals with terrorist safe-havens in its territory,” the report said. “To induce that change, we will work across the US Government, using a range of tools to expand our cooperation with Pakistan in areas where our interests converge and ...(More on P4)...(2)

PESHAWAR - Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pa-kistan Dr. Omar Zakhilwal has supported peace talks with the Taliban to end the ongoing war.“Peace cannot be brokered under duress, but it needs good and positive intentions because there is no other way to resolve the conflict but to nego-tiate peace,” he said.In an interview with Voice of America on Friday, the diplomat said: “To talk peace, we need to identify the enemy, his intentions and his goals.”As Afghanistan struggles to establish durable peace, the ambassador claimed the insurgent movement had largely devolved into groups of criminals and terrorists.“The Taliban today are not the Taliban of Mullah Omar because they had some religious commit-ments and certain values,” he remarked. At pre-sent, he alleged, the Taliban included drug barons.Zakhilwal said a foreign hand was also involved in the conflict. All the elements had to be scruti-nised and dealt with accordingly, he added.However, he ruled out peace with Daesh (Islamic State) and other ...(More on P4)...(4)

KABUL - Officials from Ministry of Energy and Water said a Rus-sian company will resume con-struction of Machalgho dam in Paktia province.The project costs more than $22 million USD. “The project is crucial for Paktia province. We are working to re-sume the construction works,” said Mohammad Hakim Ghel-jaee, head of Water Supply and Water Implementation Supervi-sion of the ministry. Paktia provincial council mem-bers said the pervious contrac-tor had received 30 percent of the project’s fund, but even five percent of the work was not com-pleted.“The project is important for Af-ghanistan. It is one of the needs of the people of the south-eastern parts of the country,” said Taj Mohammad Mangal a provincial council member. (Tolonews)

KABUL - The parents of Af-ghan-Turk school students on Saturday gathered in front of the Attorney General Office in the capital Kabul, following the detention of four teachers of the school by Afghan intel-ligence agency.National Directorate of Security (NDS), picked up four Afghan-Turk school teachers, including one Afghan and three Turkish, in Shah-i-Doshamshira area of Kabul city last Tuesday and since then there has been no clue to their whereabouts.Abdul Shakoor Daras, head of the parents committee of the Afghan-Turk school students, present at the gathering, told Pajhwok Afghan News that representatives of the commit-tee have registered their com-plaints about the detention of teachers with the AGO.He said they also talked with the AGO officials about the matter. The officials promised to respond to these complaints.Earlier, a number of officials had alleged that the move against Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO (ATCE), the organization that runs the schools, appeared to be part of a witch-hunt being waged on followers of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is accused by the Turkish govern-ment of masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016.The ATCE, which says it is an independent organization, runs schools in several cities including the capital, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat and has been in Afghani-stan since 1995.Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said it was satisfied with ...(More on P4)...(5)

these conferences for frequently exchang-ing views about improving security and stability in Afghanistan, the statement add-ed. (Pajhwok)

Pentagon Warns Pakistan of Unilateral Action Against Terrorists

No Talks with Daesh, Foreign Terrorists

Work on Paktia Dam to Resume after Seven Years

Afghan-Turk Students’ Parents Gather in Front of AGO

Law on Use of Afghan Air Space Approved

Atmar, Mcmaster Discuss Executive Political Cooperation Framework

Journalists Angry on Bad Behavior of First Lady Guards

Afghan MPs Hold Talks with Pakistani

Delegation

KABUL - Wolesi Jirga or lower house of the parliament on Tuesday approved the draft law on management of foreign military flights in Afghanistan airspace.Earlier, some reports said that unidentified helicopters were landed in Sar-I-Pul, Nangarhar and some other areas of the country.Shayesta Baz Nasari, head of the defense commission of the Wolesi Jirga said the draft law for the management of foreign military aircraft flights was prepared in four chapters and 27 articles under a legislative decree.He said that joint commission discussed the law and there were no any conflicting parts in it.However, Ramazan Bashardost, a lawmaker from the capital Kabul, said that Afghanistan’s airspace was in control of the US and the Afghan government was unable to prevent move-ments of foreign military aircrafts.Haji Hasham Faryabi, a lawmaker from Faryab province, was on the same view and said, “Such laws are useless if we cannot control our own airspace,”The US uses Afghanistan’s airspace so it should be account-

KABUL - Journalists stopped covering the second hackathon in the capital Kabul following the bad behavior of the coun-try’s first lady bodyguards.The Ministry of Higher Education on Saturday organized a hackathon that displayed information technology projects from eight universities of the country. First Lady Rula Ghani was also present at the opening of the hackathon.However, journalists and photographs were barred by body-guards of Rula Ghani from capturing the exhibition.The journalists from 13 media outlets also decided to stopped covering the hackathon in protest.Aziz Azimi, a photographer from ...(More on P4)...(6)

able for it because the country’s airspace is controlled by the US, he added.Ali Akbar Qasemi, deputy head of the defense commission of the lower house, also said that the country’s airspace was in others’ control and the draft law was prepared for the future.He said that there was no such law in the past in Afghanistan. This law is developed after some ...(More on P4)...(3)