Driven by an inherent desire to have an upper hand in the peace process, the American-led peace mission has left both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two main players around which the entire war drama revolves, at the backstage.
The eagerness can be understood in the backdrop of the upcoming presidential election and is surely a positive departure from the previous fight, fight and talk policy the Americans had designed for Afghanistan and Pakistan. This has propelled the Afghan government to begin its own peace process with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia with support from Pakistan while the America-Taliban negotiations are taking place in Qatar where the latter has opened their office.
Pakistan has always been a believer in reconciliation through dialogue and a peaceful political end to the long war. The Taliban too it seems, despite their being a non-cohesive entity, have shown clear signs of war fatigue. This lends significance to the Karzai government’s desire to involve itself in the process; it must however chalk out a detailed plan of doing so.
The high peace council ought to be empowered and efficient so that it can achieve desired objectives. Furthermore, its organisation must be comprehensive enough to include people from every strata of society in order to keep in view the needs of the 30 million Afghanis residing in Afghanistan. A comprehensive national dialogue between all major stakeholders in Afghanistan including women would be the best kind that would be acceptable and workable for the Afghans.
The entire Afghan high drama predominantly revolves around what the US wants, what are the perceived desires of its neighbours and the terrorist agendas. The Afghan population, like any other in the world wants only peace and progress for themselves. That modernity should be brought with freedom of existence. That the riches that nature has bestowed upon their land be used to benefit the inhabitants who have seen nothing but war for decades with no prospect of a reversal of their conditions in the near future.
A permanently peaceful political solution is the best way towards this aim, however it may take a very long time to come, but it will eventually come.
LUBNA HAMEED
Rawalpindi