ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and all other stakeholders involved in track-II dialogue on Afghanistan will hold their crucial meeting in Abu Dhabi next month and with that meeting, the ‘Abu Dhabi Peace Process’ will enter into the crucial stage to end militancy and bring peace to the war-shattered neighbouring country Pakistan.
A source told Pakistan Today on Sunday that chief of Afghan High Peace Council Burhanuddin Rabbani has agreed to attend the crucial moot while PPP-Sherpao Chairman Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao would represent Pakistan.
“Last year, Pakistani civil society was represented by Aftab Sherpao, ANP leader Senator Afrasiyab Khattak, PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, General (r) Ehsanul Haq, former ambassador to Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq and journalist Salim Saifi while the Afghan side was represented by deputy speaker of the Afghan Lower House of parliament Mirwais Yasini, Hikmat Karzai, Farooq Wardag, Dr Farooq Azam who represented Hikmatyar, besides Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef. However, this year, it would be an exclusive but smaller gathering,” added the source.
Talking to Pakistan Today on the track-II diplomacy, Sherpao said a crucial meeting was being held in Abu Dhabi in May and Ustad Rabbani would attend the summit. However, he said, western powers were not doing enough for peace in Afghanistan and the US administration was reluctant to even support the Afghan High Peace Council.
Rejecting the semi-annual White House report on the war on terror, Sherpao said blaming Pakistan alone was not a solution, rather it could become a part of the problem as “all the actors involved in the war against terrorism were not fully supporting the initiative and the international community, the NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistani governments and their armed forces were not doing enough to win the war against militancy and restore peace in the region”.
He said peace initiative being held under the aegis of EastWest Institute could not get the desired results by merely calling the Pakistan Army responsible for lacking the commitment to win the war. He said the major problem faced by Pakistani and Afghan armies in the war against terrorism was the lack of sustainability as peace could only be restored through collective efforts and support to the process by all the players.
“In my recent meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron last week, I told him that some basic ingredients were missing out of the peace process as the western nations were not supporting the process. Even the West was not supporting Karzai government,” he said. Sherpao said how the peace process could succeed when the US was reluctant to back the Rabbani-led High Peace Council?
He said without the US support, the peace council could not give any assurance to the Taliban, adding that for the same reason the Taliban were not sending positive signals as nothing as put on the table and confusion prevailed.He said there was a need that both the stakeholders – West and Taliban – should define their respective end-state options to make talks beneficial and different confidence-building measures (CBMs) had to taken to make the talks fruitful.
Asked to elaborate, Sherpao said the US would have to convey to the Taliban how many Taliban leaders could be freed from Guantanamo Bay while some Taliban leaders would also have to be cleared of sanctions. Likewise, he added, Taliban leadership would have to reciprocate the offers by the western world to take the peace process ahead. Calling upon the Pakistan and Afghan governments to get rid of the trust deficit, Sherpao said both the neighbouring states should sign an agreement to the effect that no one would allow the use of its soil for subversive acts against each other.
