ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan were urged on Friday to start fresh negotiations to break the ongoing deadlock on the issue of hideouts of outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its cross-border terrorism.

Speakers at a consultation said Pakistan lacked continuity in its policies towards Afghanistan and stressed that Islamabad should come up with some “realistic and holistic” policy for the neighbouring country, which must be brought into public domain to make it more productive.

Academics, politicians, journalists, religious scholars and experts on Afghan affairs from Pakistan and Afghanistan expressed these views at a consultation on ‘Afghan peace and reconciliation: Pakistan’s interests and policy options’.

The consultation was the ninth in a series of discussions organised by Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based research and advocacy think tank, on the Afghan peace process.

Afghan-based journalist says Islamabad should avoid hard-hitting statements against Taliban regime

The main themes of the consultation included ‘Rising terrorism threat from TTP, IS-K (Islamic State Khorasan) and other groups’ and ‘the TTP as a major irritant in Pak-Afghan ties’.

The discussants said Pakistan should avoid talking to the interim government of Taliban in a “tough tone” as negotiations were the only way forward. They observed that the role of ulema was crucial in this regard. They said Pakistan’s initiative of fencing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border could not fully succeed in stopping cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan and it should enhance its capacity to prevent such violence.

Senior journalist and analyst Haroon Rashid said the issue of TTP was the basic impediment in bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“There is a deadlock on the matter, which will persist as long as both sides don’t find a solution to the problem,” he said. He underlined that Pakistan would have to work on some strategy to weaken the TTP.

Mufti Mohammad Qasim Haqqani, central leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in Chaman (Balochistan), suggested that a delegation of local religious scholars and Pashtun leadership should meet with Afghan Taliban in Kabul to discuss with them all issues between the two countries, including that of TTP militants.

“Separate conferences of ulema of Pakistan and Afghanistan should be held in Kabul and Islamabad to debate and resolve issues between both the countries,” he added.

Afghan-based journalist and educationist Muzhgan Feraji talked about rights of education and employment being denied to women in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime in Kabul.

“If women have the right to education and employment in Islamic countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, then why cannot they get these rights in Afghanistan,” she questioned.

Afghan women rights activist Zohra Wahedi Akhtari deplored that the lives of women and girls were miserable under the present government in Afghanistan and added that they had become victims of the Taliban regime.

“Taliban have closed all doors of development on Afghan women,” she added.

Jamaat-i-Islami Balochistan Emir Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi said: “First of all, there is a need to understand the ideological basis of the Afghan Taliban and the TTP.”

He said both did not accept the modern democratic system and they needed to discuss and address this issue as well.

Afghan-based journalist Sami Yousafzai argued that Islamabad should not be harsh on Kabul over the issue of the presence of TTP militants in Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan must avoid giving hard-hitting statements against the Taliban regime as the latter had the leverage to create problems for the former.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) Secretary General Maulana Yousuf Shah said that Pakistan and Afghanistan should sit together and talk to each other to settle their issues.

“Governments of both sides should show their seriousness as responsibility falls on them,” he said.

Associate professor of defence and strategic studies at the Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Salma Malik said Pakistan needed to form some realistic and holistic policy towards Afghanistan, adding that Islamabad should make the Taliban understand to provide at least online facilities of education to Afghan women.

Political analyst and expert on regional affairs Afrasiab Khattak, in his concluding remarks, said Pakistan should review its policy towards Afghanistan as the existing one was flawed as well as the root cause of all problems.

Earlier, in his introductory remarks, PIPS Director Mohammad Amir Rana said the purpose of the discussion was to review Pakistan’s options to deal with the Afghan Taliban in terms of countering the TTP threat and Pakistan’s existing policy towards Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023