Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) said the Afghan government’s high expectations of Pakistan has undermined the peace process with the Taliban.
This comes after the Afghan government has, on occasion, chosen the wrong direction in its attempt to achieve peace, the HPC said in an statement, arguing that government’s unnecessary expectations of Pakistan has discouraged the Taliban to endorse peace talks with the government in Kabul.
But the statement comes at a time that Afghan officials have on a number of occasions said that the key for peace in Afghanistan lies with Pakistan.
Hopes for the resumption of the peace process have however waned despite recent international initiatives undertaken to facilitate direct discussions between the Kabul government and the Taliban.
Such efforts have not yielded the desired outcome after the hardline movement refused to join the process unless preconditions are met by the Afghan government. The Taliban’s preconditions include a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and the removal of the group’s name from the UN blacklist, among others.
After the Taliban’s statement was issued, rejecting participation, the fate of the direct negotiations between the two sides hit a deadlock.
Amid speculation, some Afghan political commentators however have said that the Taliban will never approve a peace process with government from a Pakistani platform.
“The Afghan government has always insisted that it wants peace to be achieved from the address of Pakistan, something which harmed the Taliban’s mood and the group announced its boycott of the talks. Instead of considering the role of Pakistan in the process, why does the government not take the initiative to involve the Taliban itself,” said political commentator Nazar Mohammad Mutmaeen.
Critics meanwhile are outraged over the Afghan government’s failure to outline an inclusive program for peace, arguing that the Taliban has now split into various factions and it would be difficult to achieve peace by talking to a single faction.
“It is difficult to achieve an outcome unless the Afghan government reaches a general consensus on the peace process. Both the government and HPC have failed to outline a clear vision for peace,” said political analyst Mirza Mohammad Yarmand.
“The second important issue is that Pakistan does not seem to be ready to ban all those Madrasas (religious schools) and schools that apparently train terrorists. Also Pakistan never took action against those who run these Madrasas,” he said.
In answer to the criticism, HPC officials however say that they turned to Pakistan when they saw that the Taliban was not willing to come to the talks table.
“We turned to Pakistan after noticing that the Taliban was not ready to attend the peace talks. We do not believe that the peace process has ended. We are determined to utilize all available resources for reaching peace,” HPC member Gulalai Noor Safai said.
“To some extent the Taliban are right in their argument about our inclination towards Pakistan. But the Taliban never gave the green light for negotiations, so this forced us to turn to Pakistan in our quest for peace,” HPC spokesman Shahzada Shahid said.
It is however hoped that violence will drop in Afghanistan following the recent diplomatic efforts and engagement of the US, China and Pakistan in the process. But peace in Afghanistan still remains evasive following the refusal of the Taliban to join the peace process, resulting in ordinary Afghans having to pay the price.http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/24277-govts-high-hopes-of-pakistan-hinders-peace-talks-hpc
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