Daily Times

Describing the Afghan peace process ‘a historic opportunity for peace in the region’, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan is fully supporting the process and will not be party to any internal conflict in Afghanistan anymore.

“Afghanistan conflict has brought great suffering for both Afghanistan and Pakistan over the last 40 years. Now, after a long wait, the Afghan peace process presents a historic opportunity for peace in the region and Pakistan is fully supporting the process including the next logical step of Intra-Afghan Dialogue wherein Afghans will themselves decide upon the future of their country,” he said in a statement issued by the PM Office.

“In this backdrop, Pakistan is highly dismayed by the surge of violence in Afghanistan from all sides. The so-called offensives are condemnable and will undermine the peace process. It is not right to seek an edge in dialogue through coercion,” the statement said. “Pakistan implores all parties to recognise the importance of the moment and seize it. Pakistan has committed all diplomatic and security capital to success of peace process. Pakistan will not be party to any internal conflict in Afghanistan anymore,” the statement concluded. Recently, Kabul has been extremely indignant at what it sees as Islamabad’s ‘interference’ in Afghanistan’s affairs, having recalled its ambassador twice over a statement from Prime Minister Khan regarding a possible interim setup in Afghanistan while a peace is brokered.

Pakistan has been playing a key role in the Afghan peace process, helping US President Donald Trump keep an election promise of withdrawing US military presence from Afghanistan. On the surface, the talks seem to be progressing to the satisfaction of both sides – the US and the Taliban – but the incumbent Afghan regime has largely been excluded from several rounds of negotiations, and hostilities between Kabul and the Taliban show no signs of abating.

Hopes for a breakthrough last weekend were dashed when a dialogue planned between the Taliban and Afghan officials in Doha collapsed at the last minute when Ghani announced a delegation of some 250 people from all walks of Afghan life, including government figures, will attend the talks. The Taliban rejected the lengthy list, saying the meeting was ‘not an invitation to some wedding or other party at a hotel in Kabul’.