Political solution: Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to hold direct talks with Taliban

Delegation formally asks Pakistan to play its role in reconciliation process.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to establish a method for initiating a broad-based reconciliation process, including direct negotiations with the Taliban, in a development that may pitch the two countries against the US.

The agreement was reached at a marathon meeting between Pakistan’s top military leadership and the members of the Afghan High Council for Peace at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, said a senior government official.

The Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was assisted by the ISI chief at the lengthy talks with the Afghan delegation. “It was a breakthrough … the development is very substantive,” the official, who has been part of intense discussions between the two sides, told The Express Tribune.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan are the real stakeholders and it has been agreed that the two countries will explore bilateral tracks to push reconciliation forward,” he said.

But the development could annoy the US and other regional players, which appear to have been excluded from the process.

Pakistan and the US are not on the same page when it comes to holding negotiations with extremist elements like Taliban.

Islamabad has been telling the Obama administration to embrace President Karzai’s reconciliation process, instead of using force to end the war.

Led by former Afghan president Burhanudin Rabbani, the 25-member delegation also formally asked Pakistan to play its role in the reconciliation process aimed at finding a political solution to the strife in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi could not attend the meeting because he had to travel to Lahore to attend the funeral of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated on Tuesday.

Instead, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan met the delegation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.