Salahuddin Rabbani, head of High Peace Council (HPC) has postponed his visit to Pakistan. He was scheduled to head to Pakistan in the third week of this month to facilitate peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban. Nonetheless, he says he will not pay any ‘symbolic’ visit to Pakistan. Rabbani’s denial to visit Pakistan comes a time when there is a growing tension between the two countries over rocket attacks from Pakistani side on the border regions of Afghanistan.

Last week the parliament of Afghanistan dismissed the interior and foreign ministers because of having failed to resolve the issues of rocket attacks and stop growing incidents of target killing of Afghan political figures.

In the past when the HPC was led by Salahuddin’s father, Burhanuddin Rabbani it sent peace delegations to Pakistan which all proved to be futile. Despite promises by Pakistani authorities to push the Taliban towards peace talks, no practical step has been taken so far. Pakistan, as a close neighbor to Afghanistan and as an Islamic country, is believed to have great influence on the Taliban leadership.

The HPC has long demanded Pakistan to hand over certain Taliban leaders to Afghan control so that Afghan government can initiate direct talks with them. There are reports that Pakistan is thinking over releasing Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader, Taliban’s second in command to Afghan government. Such a step, HPC says, would be appreciable and would help it improve in bringing Taliban to the table of negotiation.

At a time when the international forces are set to withdraw completely from Afghanistan by 2014, Taliban’s hope to regain power in Afghanistan has become manifold. This makes the future of Karzai’s peace and integration program completely vague. HPC formed to facilitate peace talks with Taliban has itself become a target of militancy.

Last year its head, Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed in his own home while this year it lost one of its prominent members Maulvi Arsala Rahmani who was assassinated in broad daylight near his home in a highly fortified area of Kabul.

By such killings the Taliban have clearly indicated their intention that they want to fight and would not negotiate. All efforts aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan is fading away as the Taliban insurgents have continued their targeted killings, suicide bombings, IED attacks and other sorts of violence.