It seems that Pakistan and the US are poised for a détente of sorts. After all, much has been made of bilateral intelligence cooperation regarding this week’s hit on a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) sanctuary in Kunar across our western border that is believed to have killed the chief’s son. Drone strikes do not happen in a vacuum. Islamabad is likely to have provided actionable intelligence on a militant safe-haven in a county where American drones and NATO bombs fill the sky. Nevertheless, in an acknowledgement of sorts for efforts rendered, Washington placed bounties on three TTP leaders’ heads: $5 million on Mullah Fazlullah — the man who ordered the assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai — and $3million each on Mangal Bagh and Abdul Wali — militants known to have wreaked havoc in Pakistan. So far, so good. Except that Islamabad has proved unwilling to bear the sole responsibility for bringing the Afghan Taliban to the Kabul peace table. The US cannot have it both ways. For if this country is to be an honest broker then it has to be just that. And this means not running the risk of appearing to favour the group over the Ghani regime. After all, with the Taliban still keeping shtum on the Afghan president’s peace package — in the eventuality that Pakistan did drag the latter to negotiations we all know who would get the blame if these went belly up. Thus Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua is right to have expressed this in no uncertain terms to Washington. Just as she is correct in stressing that the onus on securing peace has to rest with Kabul. If it does not, President Ghani’s hard work could well go down the proverbial drain. Leaving him negotiating from the back-foot; from a position of de-legitimacy. And the last thing anybody wants is for Pakistan to be unnecessarily back in the driving seat. This holds particularly true for the citizenry of this county who have seen much of their future mortgaged away as precious resources have been spent propping up proxies in other people’s wars that the state has made its own. And put bluntly, this has never been in the long-term national interest; only the vested. This is where China and Russia could step in, as they have in the past. For it will surely also be to the American advantage to have a multilateral support network all committed to Afghan peace. Though of course this would have to take a backseat to local ownership of this process. Yet all this will likely be a moot point unless and until Kabul puts forward a timetable for the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country. Because despite the comprehensive package offered by Ghani — this is has been the one constant Taliban demand. And it is something that Washington must take seriously in terms of starting a conversation on this front. If, that is, it truly wants to empower the Afghan president. * Published in Daily Times, March 10th 2018.