LAHORE: The experts in a seminar on Afghan peace talks were of the view that peace could not be achieved in Afghanistan without giving Pakistan a central role in US-Taliban negotiations.

The seminar on “The Afghan Peace Talks: The Latest Situation, an Analysis of the Past and Look into the Future” was organised by the Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre on Saturday.

Prof Dr Adnan Sarwar from National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Faculty of Arts and Humanities dean Prof Dr Iqbal Chawla, Dr Amjad Abbas Magsi, faculty members and students were present.

Prof Sarwar said the US-led forces had failed to subdue the Taliban even after using force but the Taliban had emerged as the most vital power to reckon with in Afghanistan. He said Afghanistan had become one of the most important political issues of the world and Pakistan got caught into the situation due to its geostrategic, geographical security and compulsion.

“The US had pressurised Pakistan in the past for supporting the Taliban, especially the Haqqani network, and did not recognise its services and scarifies at global level.

“Pakistan’s role in bringing the US and the Taliban on the table for talks had become central now and it would change the nature of relations between the US and Pakistan from strategic to tactical because the former had recently offered latter a free trade agreement.”

Prof Sarwar further said the Trump administration in 2017 had increased military in Afghanistan by renouncing the former president’s Obama’s policy and now they were discussing withdrawal especially in backdrop of the US retreat from Syria. “There are two points in the present talks between the US and the Taliban. The Taliban insist that the US should first completely withdraw its forces from Afghanistan while the US asks them to first renounce violence and join mainstream politics before its withdrawal.”

Prof Sarwar said the US wanted Pakistan to influence the Taliban for accepting their vital point.

“The main significance of the talks is that Pakistan has emerged as the solution to the problem and not perpetrator.”

Pakistan had always emphasised on two-pronged solutions to Afghanistan problem but Afghan-led and Afghan-owned solutions, Prof Sarwar said and added that the idea of regional bound had not worked in the past and the US was requesting Pakistan to become dynamic in finding the solution after accepting its main role, he said.

He said Pakistan would like to see Afghanistan a peaceful and stable country and the Taliban joining the mainstream politics.

“The Taliban has realised that they could not occupy whole Afghanistan through force and they had shown maturity as compared to the past,” he said.

He said the emergence of China as global economic power and its One Belt and One Road initiative had perturbed India.

Prof Chawla said Afghanistan remained a battleground for the last many decades and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan were at the receiving end. “Afghanistan should learn a lesson after 40 years of utter destruction, causing trauma for the region as well as for the world,” he said and added that the emerging power of China, Russia, and Germany was going to bring multipolarism in the world and it would balance power at the global level.

Prof Chawla appreciated the categorical stance of the present government for not being used as ‘hired guns’ and also welcomed that the US had recognised the role of Pakistan in Afghanistan issue and stopped its old mantra of ‘do more’.

He said India’s presence in Afghanistan was still a threat to durable peace in the region.

“The US must learn a lesson from the history that Afghanistan has never remained under occupation for long,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2019