Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rockier than ever before under the national unity government.
Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah was far from diplomatic in his reaction to Pakistan’s offer to bring the Taleban
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rockier than ever before under the national unity government.
Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah was far from diplomatic in his reaction to Pakistan’s offer to bring the Taleban to the negotiating table:
Islamabad should stop assisting the government’s opponents if it wants to build trust with Kabul.
Addressing a meeting of the council of ministers, he said “the Taleban should not be supported and not receive aid”.
Political analyst Waheed Muzhda thinks Islamabad wants peace in Afghanistan but on terms that may be totally at variance with the wishes of the Afghan people and government.
“The peace that Pakistan wants is that it brings the Taleban to the table for talks with the Afghan government by using the threat of a challenge from ISIS,” he says. By claiming ISIS was a threat, it wants to scale down pressure from the international community and equally claim that it has nothing to do with ISIS, which is from the Middle East, is his view. He believes Pakistan is home for the new fighters aligned to the new Islamic State or ISIS.
Fazal Hadi Muslimyar, speaker of the Senate, has accused Pakistan of supporting ISIS in Afghanistan. “ISIS are erstwhile members of Taleban, both products of Pakistan and Pakistan army,” he said very bluntly.
Pakistan has been quick to dismiss allegations that it is turning a blind eye to cross-border “terrorism”. The most recent claim was by Parvaiz Rashid, Pakistan’s minister of information, who said Pakistan has always tried to subdue insurgents and would continue taking steps in this regard in future too. “We never let insurgents use our land against our neighboring countries,” he is quoted saying.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan prime minister talking to the press in Lahore said his government would once again pursue peace talks between the Afghan government and Taleban. Newspapers have reported that Afghanistan figured in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s conversations with US President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House last month. The Express Tribune daily quoted a Pakistani official saying, “The
prime minister spoke about Pakistan’s efforts to restart peace talks between Afghan government and Taleban.”
Feathers in the Pakistan establishment have been ruffled by the steady stream of official statements from Kabul about Pakistan’s clandestine meddling in Afghanistan. A wave of bomb attacks in the Afghan capital in early August that killed civilians were the first time Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused the Pakistan establishment of supporting the “opponents of the government” – an indirect reference to the Taleban.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan reacted by reminding Afghanistan that it had no right to “accuse” Pakistan when its security forces were unable to prevent the attacks by armed groups.
“Afghanistan has the right to share its concerns with us (Pakistan) but when the leadership of the Afghan government points to one country (Pakistan) we get seriously concerned,” Interior Minister Khan announced.
New channels
The strain in relations between the two neighbours has sparked calls for new channels to reopen peace talks with the Taleban. Months of a pro-Pakistan tilt in the Afghan government have given way to suspicions about Pakistan’s intent and a desire to keep it away from a potential role in pushing for peace.
Last week, Chief Executive Abdullah’s office published a statement on his visit with representatives of six provinces in the south and south-west. The six have requested the government to stop talking to Pakistan, and find another channel to follow up the peace process. On July 7, representatives of the government and Taleban had met in Murree, above Islamabad, at talks hosted by the Pakistan government. It was the first officially acknowledged peace meeting. The promised follow-up after Ramadan, however, was derailed by the announcement of the death of Mullah Omar, two years earlier, and differences in the ranks of the Taleban over who would be his successor.
Was the news of Mullah Omar’s death timed to sabotage the talks?
Prime Minister Sharif voiced his dismay at the Lahore press conference last week. He said his government had “toiled hard” to get the Taleban and Afghan government to the peace table in Murree only to have the news of Mullah Omar’s death overshadow events. “I don’t know what was the need to divulge the death of Mullah Omar who had died two years back at such a sensitive time when talks were going on and a second round had been planned,” Sharif said.
He insisted that were the talks to start again he would be successful. However, for now, there is more mistrust than faith in Pakistan’s ability to broker peace. High Peace Council (HPC) members have also expressed disquiet over Pakistan’s role in the peace talks. Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, HPC’s adviser on international affairs said Pakistan was yet to prove that it is genuinely interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan. “Peace talks are still limited to words … There is nothing that can lead the country towards peace. This is a game that is more a waste of time,” he told Killid.
Qasemyar wants international observers to monitor the peace process and ensure that all sides are serious.
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