Karzai likely to lead team to Pak in push for political solution
NEW DELHI: Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai is expected to lead a high-level delegation, including High Council for National Reconciliation chief Abdullah Abdullah, to Pakistan to push for efforts for a political settlement in Afghanistan amid a drawdown of US forces.
Karzai’s visit is being seen as complementary to US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad’s efforts to nudge the Afghan government and the Taliban towards a settlement. Khalilzad began a visit on June 4 that took him to Afghanistan and Qatar.
The team to be led by Karzai will represent the Grand Council that was convened recently by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to fashion a strategy for further talks with the Taliban, people familiar with developments said.
The team is expected to travel to Islamabad by June 20 and it will engage with Pakistan’s leadership to underline the importance of taking forward talks with the Taliban, they said.
Sameer Patil, fellow for international security studies at Gateway House, said, “Everyone expects the Taliban to be part of the next Afghan government... This would indicate that efforts to contain the Taliban by all the players, except for Pakistan, haven’t yielded results. But it is also true that efforts to prop up other political elements have not been successful.”
He added, “The only option is to create an amalgamation of elements from both sides that will work for some sort of political stability. Within this, the aim will be to ensure the Taliban doesn’t have the upper hand.”