Hina Rabbani Khar to visit Kabul on February 1

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul on February 1 to boost Pakistan-Afghanistan ties and efforts to engage the Taliban that were affected by the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.

Khar will become the first Pakistani woman politician to lead a delegation to Afghanistan when she arrives in Kabul on a daylong trip.

The visit is being seen as "an icebreaker in bilateral ties", The News daily quoted its sources as saying.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani decided to send Khar to Afghanistan to shore up bilateral ties during a meeting held on January 24.

That meeting had focussed on the regional security situation and the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

After a gap of several months, Pakistan and Afghanistan have quietly revived efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban ahead of the withdrawal of US troops from the war-torn country.

Ties between Islamabad and Kabul were hit by the assassination of Afghan High Peace Council chief Rabbani, which Afghan leaders blamed on elements based on Pakistani soil.

Premier Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai had a very tense meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in the Maldives last year.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office has said it is committed to working with Afghanistan to identify Rabbani’s killers.

During a recent address in parliament, Khar said Rabbani's assassin had travelled to Afghanistan from a refugee camp in Pakistan but the two sides have made little headway in identifying those who planned the killing.