KABUL: (MEP) – Sartaj Aziz adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security recently made an important visit to Kabul, the first high-level exchange between the two countries after the Nawaz Sharif government was sworn in. Aziz, a seasoned politician and foreign policy expert, held meetings with the top Afghan leadership in a cordial and friendly atmosphere. According to reports, he categorically told the Afghan leaders in Kabul that neither Pakistan was seeking a break-up of Afghanistan nor wanted an end to the Afghan conflict with a power-sharing role for the Taliban. He handed over an invitation letter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit Pakistan. The Afghan president accepted the invitation and dates of the visit are now being worked out, the news reported.
Meanwhile, soon after Aziz’s visit Pakistan’s Foreign Office once again declared that Islamabad wants a “positive engagement with Afghanistan” for peace and stability in the region and supports the Doha reconciliation process.
It is noteworthy that Pakistan has worked on the sidelines to bring the Taliban to table in Doha so as to help end the conflict. The Foreign Office’s statement that Pakistan has played a constructive and positive role in helping accomplish this important milestone in support of a peace process for Afghanistan confirms it. Sartaj Aziz during his visit reminded the top Afghan leadership that Pakistan had only supported the travel by Taliban representatives to Doha at the request of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. He made it clear that while Pakistan definitely had some influence with the Taliban leaders it nevertheless did not control them. Aziz also told them that it was for the Afghans themselves to decide what system and what kind of post 2014 arrangement they would like to have and Islamabad had no role in it.
It is critical to note that while Pakistan has welcomed the opening of an Afghan Taliban office in Qatar for bringing peace to Afghanistan, it has avoided getting involved into any controversy that erupted after the Taliban raised their flag at the building, a step that was strongly resented by the Afghan leaders in Kabul.
Also, Pakistan has exercised maximum restraint to the Afghan allegations on different occasions. Unfortunately, serious and grave allegations have been leveled on Pakistan by the top Afghan leadership in recent weeks. For example, Afghan Army Chief General Sher Mohammad Karimi charged that the US had not started drone attacks on its own and that Islamabad had “given the lists” of militants it wanted taken out. He claimed that the drones were used against those Taliban who are part of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but never used against Haqqani or Afghan Taliban. The army chief further said Pakistan could end the Afghan war in weeks if it were serious about peace. Such statements have caused distress in Islamabad. While the Foreign Office categorically denied it, it did not get into leveling counter charges and thereby raising the ante.
Therefore, a negotiated settlement is an eminently sensible way out of the conflict. No country, especially the government in Kabul, can run the risk of prolonging the war. One hopes that all parties to the conflict will not wrap themselves in cloak of rhetoric and continue to employ cynical exercise in political opportunism but provide tangible assistance to the cause of peace.
