Notwithstanding the testy excha­nges between Kabul and Islamabad in the build-up to the event, the just-concluded Heart of Asia Conference has yielded at least two positive outcomes from Pakistan’s perspective.

A clear understanding on a renewed push for restarting the stalled Afghan-led reconciliation process and agreement on sincere cooperation among regional states in the war against terrorism can be billed as the highlight of the gathering. In fact, the breakthrough stemmed from a series of bilateral, trilateral and quadrilateral meetings among senior Afghan, Pakistani, Chinese and American leaders on the sidelines of the fifth ministerial conference.

However, an immediate return to negotiations between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban is unlikely, because the insurgent movement is in the thick of an unprecedented power struggle and factionalism. Despite serious reservations from his poli­tical foes, coalition partners and powerful Pakistan-bashers in Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani visited Islamabad — thanks to a flurry of deft diplomatic moves by different quarters.

Earlier in the month, a fruitful trip by Pakhtun nationalist leaders to Kabul and behind-the-scenes diplomacy by the US, China and Britain paved the way for an icebreaking meeting between Ghani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Paris.

Originally, Chief Executive Dr Abdullah was scheduled to represent Afghanistan at the climate change summit in France. At the eleventh hour, however, Ghani himself air-dashed to Paris in a gracious response to the call from Pakhtun politicians.

Ashraf Ghani’s presence here can revive the peace process.

As expected, after the exchange of Paris pleasantries, Ghani mellowed out and decided to participate in the Islamabad conference. His boycott of the Afghanistan-centric event would have been a major embarrassment to the Sharif government.

Apart from what he said in his long address to the delegates, Ghani had reason to urge his hosts to respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty, dismantle Taliban safe havens, treat Afghan refugees humanely and deny medical treatment to wounded militants.

Ghani’s quest for a durable friendship with Pakistan is understandable. In the face of tough opposition from coalition partners and other influential figures to his fence-mending efforts, the president took some significant initiatives over the past 14 months.

But a spike in attacks allegedly by Pakistan-based insurgents across Afghanistan gave Ghani’s detractors a stick to beat him with. Under pressure from influential leaders he was forced on the back foot some months ago.

Propitiously, however, his arrival to a rousing welcome in Islamabad reopened a window of opportunity to revive the moribund peace process. Surely, coaxing the Taliban and Kabul’s wary officialdom back to the negotiating table required Islamabad to apply a lot of elbow grease.

For the process to resume soon and remain transparent, Pakistan will have to demonstrate conclusively its neutrality, as it can no longer afford to mollycoddle ‘good’ Taliban or alienate the ‘bad’ ones. Hopefully, Kabul will not be duped again into negotiating with the emissaries of a dead man. After the Pakistan-brokered Murree talks in July this year, Kabul was resentful at being kept in the dark about Mullah Omar’s death.

Similarly, China and the US will be well advised in pushing Kabul to demonstrate a genuine interest in making peace with its armed opponents. The temptation to induce divisions among the Tali­ban or use talks as a time-buying tactic must be resisted.

A military settlement has been elusive over the past decade and a half, characterised by a catalogue of mis­sed opportunities. And it will continue to be a wild-goose chase. A 14-year Nato presence and dep­loy­ment of sophisticated weap­ons has produced little impact in terms of stability.

No one really expected miracles or quick fixes from Ghani’s trip. A return to constructive engagement per se is an encouraging sign. The stop-start cycle should not be allowed to snap bilateral contacts. Keeping the lines of communication open, even in edgy situations, is vital to keeping a lid on tensions.

Even incremental progress on intractable issues will help keep hawks on both sides of the border from derailing confidence-building measures. In the not-so-distant past, we saw how the intelligence-sharing deal was scuttled and Ghani branded as a quisling.

In today’s world, engagement on diplomatic and political levels has been an effective tool to settle disputes.

Peace constituencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan have consistently supported normalisation, as well as efforts to rein in extremists. Vibrant civil society groups have been eloquent in demanding a joint front against militants. But ironically, Karzai and the remnants of the now defunct Northern Alliance have been averse to Ghani’s bold initiatives to reach out to Pakistan. While in power for 14 years, Karzai himself tended to wax lyrical in calling the two nations conjoined twins.

The writer is a Peshawar-based freelance journalist.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2015