Islamabad removes special envoy on Kabul

At a time of heightened tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, in a surprise move the government has removed Pakistan's special envoy on Afghanistan Ambassador Asif Durrani.

An official notification states that Ambassador (retd) Asif Ali Durrani will be relieved of his responsibilities as Special Representative on Afghanistan in Management Position (MP-1) with effect from September 10, 2024.

No reason was given for the move. Durrani was not immediately available for comments on the development.

Durrani replaced Ambassador (retd) Muhammad Sadiq as special envoy on Afghanistan in May 2023. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan during his stint as troubleshooter only went from bad to worse.

Some people familiar with the development told The Express Tribune that Ambassador Durrani failed to make any impact on the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. They also added that Durrani had no acceptability in Kabul as he only had a handful of engagements with the Taliban government since he was given the responsibility.

But others say that Durrani had little tools at his disposal given the overall strategy being followed by Pakistan. It is not clear who will succeed him as the special envoy position is critical not only to advance diplomatic efforts with Afghanistan but engagement with other international interlocutors.

Relations with Afghanistan has become a challenge since the return of Taliban in August 2021. There were hopes that ties between the two countries would improve under the new regime given Pakistan's historic ties with the Taliban.

However, to the contrary things only got worse as the number of terrorist attacks only went up in recent times. Pakistan has blamed the TTP hideouts across the border as the main source of trouble in its backyard. It has repeatedly urged the Taliban government to tackle the threat. However, the Kabul administration is reluctant to act against the TTP and its affiliates.

The Afghan Taliban have been urging Pakistan to find a political solution to the TTP problem. Pakistan, initially, did talk to the TTP at the request of the Afghan Taliban. However, those efforts were futile as TTP used the negotiations to regroup. After the change of command at the Army in November 2022, Pakistan stopped talking to the TTP and decided in principle that there would be no negotiations with the terrorist groups.

The move not only further worsened ties between the two countries but also led to more terrorist attacks in Pakistan.