The Afghan authorities refused a plane carrying a parliamentary delegation of Pakistan landing at the Kabul airport due to “security reasons” on Thursday.
Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan in a tweet said “Speaker’s visit to Kabul postponed as the airport was closed due to security threat.”
“The plane was about to descend when the control tower informed of the closure of the airport. New dates for the visit will be decided after mutual consultations,” he added.
The plane kept hovering over the Afghanistan capital for several hours and returned when it was not allowed landing.
The media wing of the Parliament House said in statement that the visit of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to Afghanistan was postponed due to the closure of the Kabul airport.
The nine-member parliamentary delegation, headed by Speaker Asad Qaiser, was to visit Kabul on the special invitation of Chairman Wolsi Jirga Mir Rehman Rahmani.
According to the data available from the flight tracker Flightradar 24 and shared by an unofficial PIA enthusiast said the aircraft remained in the air for some time near Kabul’s Hamid Karzai airport, before heading back home.
However, the information available from the Kabul Airport’s online arrivals and departures showed regular flight movement.
Official sources said Chairman Wolsi Jirga Rahmani and Chairman of the Afghan Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar telephoned Speaker Asad and regretted the postponement of the visit. They said they were looking forward to the visit of the delegation from Pakistan at the earliest. The speaker said he would visit Kabul as soon as the security situation improves.
Prior to his visit, the Speaker in a brief message said he “looks forward to closer ties with the people of Afghanistan.”
