ISLAMABAD:
As the international community accelerates its efforts to windup the Afghan reconciliation process before the withdrawal of US and Nato forces from the country, Afghan High Peace Council (AHPC) chief Salahuddin Rabbani will visit Islamabad this month to resume peace talks with Pakistani leaders, a foreign ministry source told i.
“Significant positive developments are expected when leaders from Islamabad and Afghanistan will hold talks on new proposals to end the hostilities,” the official said.
One of the proposals pertains to the release of some Afghan Taliban leaders from Pakistani custody enabling them to enter the talks with the Council. A western diplomat in Islamabad recently quoted a senior Afghan diplomat in Islamabad as saying that Pakistan is willing to accept this demand by Kabul. However, the foreign ministry official was unaware of the claimed assurance by Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Some new proposals regarding Pakistan’s possible role in arranging reconciliation talks between AHPC and the Afghan Taliban will also come under discussion.
The key mandate of the Council is to reach out to the Taliban who have so far been refusing to enter a dialogue with the Karzai government, seeing it as an illegitimate regime in Kabul. However, AHPC is convinced that Islamabad can help bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Rabbani’s planned visit is the outcome of the trilateral meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari, his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister David Cameron held in New York last month at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, said the official. Salahuddin Rabbani, who succeeded his father Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani as AHPC chairman April this year, also attended the trilateral meeting.
The Council, led by its chief, was earlier scheduled to visit Pakistan in August, following the trilateral meeting between Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, his British counterpart Cameron and President Karzai in Kabul in July.
The visit was postponed due to allegations of cross-border violations against each other by both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Both the New York and Kabul trilateral summits were hosted by the British premier. Following the Kabul meeting, the leaders of the three countries emphasised that Afghanistan required Pakistan’s help to successfully negotiate with the Taliban.
The Afghan media also claimed that PM Ashraf had assured Karzai and Cameron that Islamabad would facilitate negotiations with the Taliban.
In his address to the UN General Assembly last month, Karzai urged the UN to delist Taliban leaders from its register of terrorists and facilitate the peace process. In particular he urged the 1988 Taliban’s Sanction Committee to take more active measures towards delisting Taliban as a step to facilitate direct negotiations.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2012.
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You say "------However, AHPC is convinced that Islamabad can help bring the Taliban to the negotiating table...."
Bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table means nothing , unless they are sincere about an about turn in their obscurantist outlook and behaviour.
They may come to the table, waste time~~~and continue in their violent ways also.
They must be waiting for (a) the year 2014 AD (b) for the oncoming elections in 2014
Remember , President Karzai has not yet named a candidate who he intends to support for the post which he is expected to vacate. Its all heavy cronyism . Merit is a casualty there.
Our issue is gradually resembling like the issue of Kashmir between pakistan and India which never has been resolved for the last 50 years. I congratulate pakistanis who kept busy both India and Afghanistan in their own issues while non of them are involvoed in pakistan's internal issue. However, this time a stable Afghanistan is necessary for the stability of the region or whol world and moreover its vital for pakistan itself to work for peace sincerely because our pakistani brothers themselves have suffered alot since 9/11.