Hikmatyar favours ‘inclusive’ talks inside Afghanistan

Hizb-e-Islami leader doesn’t see revival of talks in near future

ISLAMABAD:

The second largest Afghan resistance group after the Taliban favours a negotiated solution to the deadly conflict in Afghanistan but says peace talks should be held within Afghanistan.

Dr Ghairat Baheer, who heads Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA)’s political commission, said no group should be left out of the peace process. However, he doesn’t see the talks happening in the near future as “controversy over the Taliban leadership persists.”



“Hizb-e-Islami favours Afghan-led and Afghan-owned talks as we have always argued that war is no solution to the problem,” Baheer told The Express Tribune in an interview.



Baheer’s remarks come at a time when major stakeholders and Afghanistan are set to begin consultations on how to resurrect the moribund dialogue process. Senior diplomats from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the Unites States are scheduled to meet in Islamabad in the second week of this month.

Afghan officials say Deputy Foreign Minister Khalil Hekmat Karzai will lead the Afghan side in the quadrilateral process. Hekmat Karzai was one of the key members of the first round of the Pakistan-brokered rare direct talks between Afghan government officials and Taliban representatives in early July last year.



“We have already floated comprehensive proposals for ending the conflict. We want all-inclusive talks to be held in Afghanistan to make them Afghan-owned in real sense of the word,” said the HIA leader whose party was left out of the Murree Peace Process that collapsed following the disclosure of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death presumably by the Afghan spy agency.

Baheer said HIA chief Engineer Gulbudin Hikmatyar has always backed ‘meaningful negotiations’ and expressed willingness to join an intra-Afghan dialogue. “We want the agenda for the dialogue process should be transparent. Talks should be based on ground realities and without any intervention.”

Asked when the elusive leader of his party would make a public appearance, Baheer chose to avoid a direct reply. “Hikmatyar will play an active part in politics if the situation becomes suitable,” he said.



The whereabouts of Hikmatyar, who had briefly served as the prime minister in the mid-90s, has been unknown since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. “Hikmatyar is ready and determined to join politics,” said Baheer, who is also son-in-law of Hikmatyar.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2016.