PM at Tashkent

The prevailing Afghan situation dominates the discourse at a regional conference

The prevailing Afghan situation dominated the discourse at a regional conference titled ‘Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity: Challenges and Opportunities’ held in Tashkent yesterday. As Afghan President Ashraf Ghani repeated his customary criticism of Pakistan’s “negative role” in the Afghan peace process during his address; on his turn, Prime Minister Imran Khan hit back hard and put the record straight. He stressed that no country had tried harder than Pakistan to convince the Taliban for talks. “We have made every effort, short of taking military action against the Taliban in Pakistan, to get them on the dialogue table and to have a peaceful settlement [in Afghanistan],” Imran told the participants of the conference.

And later, during his one-on-one meeting with President Ghani, Prime Minister Imran tried to convey Pakistan’s desire for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process and a future political setup in the war-ravaged country that is acceptable to all stakeholders. As a goodwill gesture, the PM even cancelled a conference scheduled in Islamabad later this month to discuss the Afghan situation, just because Ghani so wished. This should serve as a good confidence-building measure for Kabul to respond in kind. Ghani must understand that merely blaming Pakistan for what is going on in Afghanistan is “extremely unfair” – as PM Imran put it – and is not going to serve the purpose.

Earlier, Afghanistan was the main talking point as Prime Minister Imran and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev had a meeting before the conference. Both Pakistan and Uzbekistan share border with Afghanistan as well as concerns about the deteriorating political situation in the country. Interestingly, it was the Afghan situation that was a cause of strained relationship between Pakistan and the newly-born Uzbekistan in the nineties as the two countries were supporting opposing Afghan factions. The bilateral relations did not improve until the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. It was in 2005 that president Pervez Musharraf turned out to be the first Pakistan head of state to visit Uzbekistan after almost a decade.

Neither country now has any favourites in Afghanistan; and according to a joint declaration issued after the talks between Khan and Mirziyoyev, “the parties stressed the necessity to resolve the conflict through Afghan-led and Afghan-owned political process through peaceful and inclusive negotiations resulting in [a] comprehensive political settlement”. The two sides also suggest that the countries neighbouring Afghanistan – including Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran – and even Turkey should help facilitate a peace process in Afghanistan. In this regard, PM Imran has called for the foreign ministers of the mentioned countries to meet first and “then we will go on and try and have a summit so that we can stop what looks like a civil war” in Afghanistan.

And even as the two sides discussed trade – at the Pakistan-Uzbekistan Business Forum – peace in Afghanistan came up as an important factor. As Imran emphasised the importance of promoting connectivity, he highlighted the Trans-Afghan railway project which would connect the three countries. He also offered Pakistan’s seaports to the landlocked Uzbekistan which in turn can help Pakistan gain access to Central Asian markets. The bilateral ties are, therefore, worth strengthening.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2021.

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