‘Cup of tea’ in Kabul proved costly: Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar calls it a mistake; pledges not to repeat it

Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar has said that a symbolic “cup of tea” in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, turned out to be a costly mistake for Pakistan. He reiterated that such a mistake should never be repeated. Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Dar criticised the previous Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, saying that under the pretext of that “cup of tea,” Pakistan had opened its borders to Afghanistan. He described this move as a serious error in judgment. “It was a big mistake and should not be repeated,” Dar said, news agency ANI reported, quoting Afghanistan’s Tolo News. Dar’s comments referred to the 2021 visit of the then-ISI chief, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, to Kabul shortly after the Taliban seized control of Afghanis