Pakistani Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar is scheduled to arrive to Kabul tomorrow. She will be the first ever Pakistani female politician to visit Afghanistan. During her one day visit, she is expected to hold talks with Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Zalmai Rasoul and President Hamid Karzai. The issues that will come under discussions are not publically known but Afghan officials say the focus of meetings will be on negotiation process with Taliban and other mutual issues of the two countries. Khar was asked earlier this month by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to travel to Kabul ahead of a trilateral summit on the future of Afghanistan.

Khar's visit holds significant importance as it is the first visit of any Pakistani high level diplomat to Afghanistan after the assassination of Burhan-ud-Din Rabbani, President Karzai's peace envoy and ex-president of Afghanistan. Rabbani was assassinated in September last year.

Karzai held Pakistan responsible for having a role in his killing, although later on Khar did state in the Pakistani Senate that the murderer had travelled from a refugee camp inside Pakistan. The accusation led to souring of bilateral relations. Not only the Afghan-Pak relation soured but also Mr. Karzai halted efforts to engage Taliban in peace talks. He called Taliban his brothers but they came up with killing his peace council's head and Ahmad Wali Karzai, his brother.

Now that Pakistan FM is visiting Afghanistan, it seems like the ties between the two countries are going towards normalization. The Afghan-Pak relations have gone through ups and downs in the last ten years. But one thing that both countries agree upon is that they can not go ahead with cooperating with each other.

Terrorism and extremism are serious threats facing both the countries and that cannot be fought by continuing blame games. Both the nations have given sacrifices in fighting terrorism and for not letting those sacrifices go futile, the need to support one another.

Pakistan has been a vital US ally in its fight against al Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan. As the US authorities are mulling over ending the longest war in their county's history through negotiations with Taliban, the Pakistani role is being considered pivotal for the negotiation process to triumph.

The US forces are set withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and regional countries like Pakistan are expected to play a wider role in improving regional security. For US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, a political settlement with Taliban has been emphasized upon. And that settlement is difficult to occur without support from Pakistan.

Although both the US and Afghan authorities are trying to persuade Pakistan to cooperate more, on 19 January Pakistan FM, Hina Rabban Khar told Reuters that Pakistan's ties with the United States remained on hold following a NATO cross-border air attack and Washington should not push Islamabad to go after militant groups or bring them to the Afghan peace process.

Afghan officials see Khar's visit as start of a new phase of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan as they are resuming peace talks with Taliban. "This visit will mark a new cooperation relations phase between the two countries," Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told a news conference on Sunday. Without cooperation from Pakistan, it would be difficult both for the US and Afghanistan to attain success in talks with Taliban. "Pakistan plays a key role in Afghan peace process and Afghanistan needs a sincere effort of our neighboring country toward peace negotiations," Mosazai said.

For consultation of negotiation with Taliban, Mark Grossman, US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan recently paid visits to Ankara, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Kabul and Doha. He also requested to travel to Pakistan but it was denied. Despite that, Grossman called the role of Pakistan as 'crucial' in a political solution to Afghan war.

A peaceful Afghanistan, as has been maintained by Pakistani authorities since long, is the best interest of Pakistan's security and economy. As long as Afghanistan continues to remain unstable, there is no hope for a better security in Pakistan. For the sake of its own security, it should be highly preferable to Pakistan to support efforts aimed at bringing stability in Afghanistan. HinaRabbaniKhar's visit signals that Pakistan is one again on board and is looking for playing its role in peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents.

For a bilateral tie to work, the Afghan government needs to address the concerns of Pakistan. It should not allow the Afghan soil to be used against any country. Although Mr. Karzai has been emphasizing on the point that Afghanistan will not be used against any nation including Pakistan, the November NATO airstrikes on Pakistani security check posts raised concern in that country.

For Afghan-Pak to relations to nurture, avoidance of such actions would be necessary. Hina Rabbani Khar's visit, at this juncture, is being seen as very important. For the peace process to go ahead, it would pivotal to have Pakistan on the board. Without a better level cooperation between Islamabad, Kabul and Washington leading the peace process to success would be a really tough job.