Don’t implore Pakistan for peace, senators ask govt

KABUL): A number of senators on Tuesday expressed pessimism about the outcome of the fourth trilateral summit due to be held later in the day in London.

The lawmakers asked the government not to implore Pakistan to play an honest role in promoting the Afghan-led peace process at the three-way meeting.

President Hamid Karzai is set to hold talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and British Premier David Cameron on jump-starting the peace drive.

Ahead of the trip, Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said issues concerning the peace process, the anti-terror campaign and measures to ensure stability in Afghanistan would come up for discussion.

Karzai will seek an explanation from Sharif on the whereabouts of Taliban Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Since his release on Sept. 20, Baradar’s location has been a source of speculation, with Kabul believing the ex-commander could persuade the Taliban to enter substantive peace talks with the Afghan government.

Speaking in the Meshrano Jirga, a public representative from southern Zabul province said similar meetings in the past among the three countries had ended on a sterile note.

Mohammad Daud Hasas believed: “We shouldn’t pin high hopes on the latest summit either.” He urged the Karzai administration to stop wooing Pakistan into pushing the reconciliation effort.

The global fraternity should be asked to mount pressure on the neighbouring country to support genuinely efforts at stabilising Afghanistan, he suggested.

Hasas also urged the government to rethink its stance on reconciliation with the Taliban, arguing many fighters had returned to the insurgency after joining the peace process.

Another senator from central Bamyan province, Hidayatullah Rihayee, also sounded downbeat about the London talks. Plans devised in foreign countries had failed to work in Afghanistan, he claimed, calling for a homegrown solution.

“Instead of London, Kabul should have hosted the summit. The problem of insecurity is haunting Afghanistan, not Britain,” remarked the legislator, who asked for an end to overreliance on external support.

Balqis Roshan from Farah province alleged the UK and Pakistan had never sincerely backed peace efforts in Afghanistan. “We, therefore, should not beseech them,” she said.

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