Apparently the London trilateral summit has not gone all in vain. Islamabad has agreed for a mechanism of coordination with the Afghan Government on release of Taliban prisoners. But the question is, when Islamabad assures full cooperation on the reconciliation efforts to be, in their own words, “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led”, why it takes for a summit in London to come to agreement on something as fundamental in the process as whereabouts of those Taliban released?
Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani has said Islamabad would send lists of Taliban prisoners that they intend to release to the High Peace Council for comment on names in the list. He added that the decision of releasing all Taliban prisoners has been taken on request of President Karzai.
HPC has welcomed the move saying it is a significant step towards more cooperation between the two countries. Each time there has been such reports of a ‘significant progress’, Government circles in Kabul have hyped it as a breakthrough, but soon complaints restart regarding lack of coordination, ambiguity and ineffectiveness or accusations of insincerity.
It is pity of our statesmen to expect free cooperation. Having been habitual of receiving unconditional foreign support, the authorities think they can persuade Islamabad to make the u-turn in their strategic policy, handover all the Taliban leaders to HPC and facilitate peace talks. None of it is likely to come without mutual compensation. Pakistan would not lightly compromise with a shift in their decade-old strategy of harboring Taliban leadership. They would certainly put political conditions for Kabul which could be entirely separate from the issue.
Recently Foreign Ministry spokesman said they hope Pakistan would convince the Taliban for direct talks with the Kabul government. It is daydreaming. It shows how cut they are from the realities. They had said with the release of the Taliban prisoners, Pakistan has started taking ‘practical steps’ to facilitate direct talks. What kind of facilitation is it that the Afghan Government does not know about locations of all those Taliban released, more than 20 so far. Pakistan clearly says it cannot guarantee Taliban’s willingness for talks.
A peaceful end to the conflict in Afghanistan through negotiations is in Pakistan’s best interests. The military establishment in Rawalpindi knows it. But they will try to the last option to squeeze Kabul and gain compensation on other issues. HPC needs to work out a more coherent strategy and avoid the domestic agendas of the current administration to give a final blow to this last chance of any serious progress on the hopes of a genuine reconciliation.