Imran-Ghani phone talk

President Ashraf Ghani’s telephonic call to PM Imran Khan should be seen as a welcome initiative from Kabul

Direct talks between the US and the Taliban move ahead, but an intra-Afghan dialogue is still elusive. What was going to be the first interaction between the Taliban and Kabul — in Doha last month — was suspended at the last moment. The Taliban raised objection to a 250-strong list of delegates from Kabul, telling them that they were not coming to a ‘wedding party’, but to a ‘prearranged conference in a far-away Gulf country’. While Pakistan is, so far, successfully playing the role of a facilitator in the US-Taliban talks, it is still confronted with the big challenge of maintaining a balance among all Afghan groups, mainly due to the Taliban’s aversion to treat the ‘puppet’ Kabul regime as a stakeholder, let alone an equal one.

And as the challenge of making the ongoing Afghan reconciliation process truly all-inclusive still stands, President Ashraf Ghani’s telephonic call to Prime Minister Imran Khan should be seen as a welcome initiative from Kabul — more so in view of the recent flare-up in diplomatic tension between the two sides that saw Kabul recalling its ambassador from Islamabad in the wake of Prime Minister Imran urging President Ghani to install an interim set-up in Afghanistan and conduct impartial elections, in line with one of the demands from the Taliban. That the two sides are now back to the talking terms is a sign of the seriousness of both towards efforts to restore peace to the war-stricken country.

The understanding between the two leaders on the phone — to help each other build peace and promote economic activities for the sake of the people of the two countries, besides advance connectivity for regional prosperity — augers well for the peace process. The two sides are now required to build on this understanding. While Pakistan’s further action on the path to peace must satisfy the various Afghan stakeholders, Ghani will have to ensure that he is a facilitator and not an irritant to peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2019.

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