KABUL, Aug 24: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has expressed the hope that his forthcoming visit to Pakistan will be particularly beneficial for Afghanistan.

“We hope the visit will bear good results in regard to peace negotiations and security of Afghanistan,” Mr Karzai said on Saturday.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has all the right intentions for stability and peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he remarked.

President Karzai, who has visited Islamabad regularly since he came to power after the fall of the Taliban, will be making his first trip since Mr Sharif was elected as prime minister.

During his visit that is scheduled to begin on Monday, Mr Karzai is expected to push for the release of key Taliban prisoners as he tries to restart peace talks with the militants after they collapsed acrimoniously.

Pakistan is seen as key to ending the 12-year conflict in Afghanistan before presidential elections in April and the withdrawal of 87,000 Nato-led combat troops by the end of next year.

Ties between the neighbours appeared to improve at a summit hosted by Britain in February, but have since frayed badly in a series of public rows that rekindled long-held mutual suspicion.

Members of the High Peace Council (HPC), the official Afghan government negotiators, will travel with Mr Karzai and call for the release of the most senior Taliban figure detained in Pakistan, former deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

“We will seek the release of some Taliban prisoners who are in Pakistani jails for political reasons and who are interested in peace talks. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be one of them,” HPC member Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar said.

Pakistan released 26 Taliban prisoners in two batches late last year, including the militants’ former justice minister Nooruddin Turabi, and Afghan peace negotiators hailed the moves as a significant boost to efforts to end the war. The search for a peace deal is a priority as Afghan forces take on the fight against the militants with decreasing help from the international coalition.

But a Taliban office that opened in Doha in June to foster talks instead enraged President Karzai as it was styled by the militants, who ruled Kabul from 1996 to 2001, as an embassy for a government-in-exile.

The resulting dispute shut down embryonic peace efforts as the Afghan president threatened to boycott any future negotiations with the Taliban and broke off separate security talks with the United States.

Mr Karzai has insisted on his government taking a central role in any peace talks, despite the Taliban’s refusal to open contact with him or his appointed negotiators as the militants see him as a puppet of the United States.

A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said Islamabad backed all efforts to halt unrest in Afghanistan. “Pakistan fully supports the Afghan peace and reconciliation process and also the Doha talks,” the official said.

“The regional situation and post-2014 situation in Afghanistan will also be discussed during the visit. Pakistan has a genuine interest in lasting peace in Afghanistan.” Pakistani officials have, however, been tight-lipped about further prisoner releases.

Analysts warned against expecting too much from the visit, which officials said was to start on Monday.

“Karzai is hopeful that he will be able to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the help of the new Pakistani administration,” Abdul Waheed Wafa, analyst and director of the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, said.

“But we haven’t seen anything to conclude that they are prepared to change their long-term policy towards Afghanistan and give up supporting the insurgency.”

Pakistani analyst Hasan Askari said a great deal of distrust remained between the two countries and Mr Karzai’s visit could at best create a “temporary thaw”.

“Karzai’s attitude towards Pakistan is due to his belief that Pakistan-based groups are creating unrest, while Pakistan says that militants hiding in Afghanistan are carrying out attacks in Pakistan,” he said.

“Karzai wants dialogue, but he wants to control it himself.”—AFP