ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday called upon the Afghan warring factions to build on the progress made in their peace talks so far.

He was talking to a delegation of Taliban Political Commission (TPC), headed by Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, which called on him for discussing the peace process and the way forward.

“The prime minister expressed hope that the Afghan parties would continue to build on the recent positive developments in the intra-Afghan negotiations,” the Prime Minister Office said in a statement after the meeting.

The intra-Afghan dialogue is currently on a 20-day recess with both sides off to update their principals and seek fresh instructions. They were negotiating the agenda of the talks before breaking off for the recess.

The two sides had earlier agreed on ‘rules and procedures’ for the talks after protracted discussions spanning over nearly three months.

Says no recognition of Israel unless it gives due right of freedom to Palestine people

The Afghan government and Taliban have an understanding on resuming the talks from Jan 5, but a new venue for the dialogue is yet to be decided. Both sides have diverging views about where to reconvene.

There has been an element of uncertainty about the future of the talks because of high incidence of violence in Afghanistan, indecision about the future venue of the talks and the upcoming transition in Washington.

However, the message from Islamabad to both sides has been clear that it wants reduction in violence, leading to a ceasefire, and the talks to continue till an inclusive and comprehensive political settlement is achieved.

Prime Minister Khan, while talking to the Taliban delegation, underscored that the peace talks provided a historic opportunity to the Afghan leaders for achieving durable peace and stability. He expressed concern over the high level of violence and called on all sides for reduction in violence leading to a ceasefire.

Mr Khan reiterated Pakistan’s support for an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement. He further warned about the role of spoilers, who continue to try to disrupt and derail the peace process.

The delegation from Taliban’s political office in Doha, according to the PM Office, is visiting Pakistan as part of Islamabad’s efforts to facilitate the process to achieve a peaceful, stable, united, independent, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan.

The delegation had met Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday.

Mr Qureshi had in his media comments after the meeting hoped the intra-Afghan talks would resume from Jan 5, but conceded that the venue for the next round of dialogue was yet to be decided.

“Taliban are convinced that continued conflict is not in their interest. I could clearly see from the conversation their inclination towards peace and seriousness. It was very encouraging to see that,” Mr Qureshi had said.

Taliban have often been blamed for not agreeing to reduction in violence, which is believed to be the biggest impediment to a political settlement of the conflict.

However, the foreign minister said Taliban were not alone to blame for the ongoing violence.

‘No recognition of Israel’

Prime Minister Khan reiterated that Pakistan would never recognise Israel unless it gave due right of freedom to the people of Palestine.

In an interview with Samaa TV, the prime minister rejected a media report that a member of his cabinet had discreetly paid a visit to Israel’s capital Tel Aviv recently and termed it a part of ‘disinformation campaign’ by an Indian network of fake news.

“If we have a clear-cut policy that we will not recognise Israel, then there is no question of sending a minister there. If he [minister] goes there what he can do,” he said, adding that the fake news about the minister’s visit to Tel Aviv was run by the Indian disinformation network that had already been exposed by the European Union Disinformation Lab.

The prime minister alleged that the Indian disinformation news network was being fed by some people sitting in Pakistan who had been portraying bleak economic picture of the country for the past two years.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020