After more than ten years of ineffective military campaign against Taliban insurgency, table talks with them remain as the only viable option for the West and the Afghan government to end the conflict in Afghanistan. Since early 2010, the US and the Afghan government have been attempting to persuade Taliban leadership to negotiate.

Last year certain US officials met Taliban representatives outside Afghanistan in Germany and Gulf States and as result they agreed to open an office for Taliban in Qatar. Nonetheless, talks halted as Taliban accused the US for not keeping in its promise of releasing five of their friends detained at Gitmo Bay. No office for Taliban was established.

With the break in the process of talks with Taliban, escalation of terror attacks across Afghanistan and assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, ex-chairman of High Peace Council (HPC) by a Taliban-linked suicide bomber, hopes of an immediate solution to Afghan war faded away.

Now, for the first time, reports say Afghan officials have been able to meet Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Taliban’s former second in command in a jail in Pakistan. The first time direct meeting of Afghan officials with Mullah Baradar has been made possible by the government of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s involvement in facilitating the meeting is an unusual step taken by the country towards helping to broker a peace in Afghanistan. Afghan authorities have been accusing Pakistan for not acting on its words. Earlier this month Salahuddin Rabbani, the current chairman of HPC 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. He said he would not pay any ‘symbolic’ visit to Pakistan and demanded Pakistan to cooperate sincerely.

The current measure by Pakistani authorities is a major effort to support Afghanistan’s peace negotiations with Taliban. Pakistan as a close neighbor to Afghanistan and as Islamic country is believed to have great influence over the Taliban leadership and can definitely play a pivotal role in ending the war in Afghanistan by in bringing Taliban to the table of negotiations.

Pakistani government that has always maintained that a peaceful Afghanistan would be in its country’s benefit would hardly see such an Afghanistan, if it sincerely cooperates in bringing peace in here.