The Pakistan group members of PAJC held a meeting with Engineer Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former PM, leader of opposition in Afghanistan Parliament ‘Wolesi Jirga’, and head of Hizb-e-Islami, at his residence on June 23, 2018.
Hekmatyar welcomed the Beyond Boundaries Pakistani delegates and said: “We support the engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Gap between Pakistan and Afghanistan will harm both countries. Continuation of war will badly affect people in both countries.” Hekmatyar recognised that Pakistan had suffered a lot because of the war in Afghanistan, by way of especially losing markets in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan was the only neighbor that suffered the most among Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. “Others have got benefits from the war in Afghanistan. Iran has invested in the war for its own interests and economic benefits.”
Hekmatyar added that he is satisfied with the Hizb-e-Islami peace deal with the government of President Ghani. He told the delegates that he is heading a 35 party coalition, which includes all political parties of Afghanistan which even President Karzai is supporting as part of this alliance. Hekmatyar said his party will take part in parliamentary elections in October, and he was confident that his candidates will win in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in October this year. He called for fair and transparent elections on the basis of proportional representation and under the supervision of political parties.
Talking about the continued war in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar blamed Iran for destabilizing Afghanistan. He added: “Iran is the only neighbor of Afghanistan which has invested for 30 years for the continuation of war in our countries. Tehran has achieved economic benefits from the war in Afghanistan and has succeeded in gaining access to the Afghan market. Now the Afghan market is in Iran’s hands. Iran’s exports to Afghanistan’s now stands at $5 billion. The official figure of the exports is $2 billion and the rest is smuggling. Now even the markets in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost and Nangarhar provinces are flooded with Iranian goods and Iranian dates are sold in Laghman and Nangarhar that border Pakistan.”
Hekmatyar said Central Asian gas could open trade with the world via Pakistan and Afghanistan, but Iran is trying to block this channel through Afghanistan and wants the Central Asian trade to be carried out via Iran. Tehran wants its gas to go to India through Pakistan and Afghanistan instead of the TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) project.
“TAPI is a big project and it connects Central Asian with the world via Pakistan and Afghanistan, but Iran tries to connect Central Asia via Iran. So Iran wants Pakistan and Afghanistan out of this project. This project has lots of benefits and that is why Iran creates problems and hatches conspiracies,” Hekmatyar said. He claimed that Iran wants to block the Afghan route for the export of Central Asian oil and gas to Pakistan and India, and even the rest of the world. “This approach only benefits Iran, and Pakistan and Afghanistan are forced to look towards Iran. That is why Iran wants continuation of war in Afghanistan so Pakistan and Afghanistan should not get benefit of it and Iran remains the only beneficiary of this war.”
To a question about Daesh presence in Afghanistan, he said Daesh is not a major issue but their presence has always been exaggerated. “Iran is playing the same game in the name of Daesh like it has done in Iraq. Iran has sent nearly 30,000 trained Afghans to Syria for war there. Many have been killed and now Iran wants to bring them back to Afghanistan. Iran has requested the Afghan government to allow them return. Some have already been deployed in northern parts of Afghanistan. Daesh in Afghanistan is Iran’s game and not the US and Pakistan,” he said. Hekmatyar said he did not agree with the notion that the US is behind Daesh in Afghanistan and said the US would not use thousands tons of bombs against Daesh in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.
He told the Pakistani delegation that he has urged the Taliban and the Afghan government to settle on an arrangement where peace zones are declared in specific areas of the war-torn country. This will enable the exiled leadership of the militia to return to Afghanistan and the peace process to continue. He argued that peace zones could enable the Taliban to return to the country and there would be no need for them to maintain offices either in Qatar or any other country.
Hekmatyar went as far as to suggest that the Taliban may have their own system of governance in the peace zones where there will be no deployment of foreign or Afghan forces. “There will be no war and foreigners will not stay there. This will pave the way for trust building and ultimately for peace negotiations,” the Hizb Chief said. Hekmatyar said he had shared his proposal with President Ghani, ‘who was very positive’.
Speaking further, Hekmatyar said that at the moment the government, political leaders and groups did not have any plan to encourage the Taliban to join the peace process. He said he had suggested to President Ghani to not talk about war from his palace, and instead speak of peace and reconciliation with the Taliban.
“I have urged President Ghani to propose effective peace plans to the Taliban. He has sent positive messages to the Taliban since he unveiled his peace initiative at the meeting of Kabul Process in February this year,” he said. Ghani had offered the Taliban to open office anywhere in Afghanistan, adding that the militia would be recognised by the government as a legitimate political movement, their prisoners would be freed and names of top Taliban leaders removed from UN sanctions lists. Taliban have yet to respond to Ghani’s offer; they insist on direct talks with the United States – considered a major party to the conflict.
Hekmatyar said he had always urged the Taliban to join the political process like Hizb-e-Islami. “I have also asked the U.S. former and the incumbent ambassadors to consider what have they achieved by spending billions of dollars. There has been no military and political success so far,” he said. He said last year the war killed 36,000 people and there were only six foreigners among the dead, all others were Afghans. “So there is no justification of this war which only kills Afghans and destroys our country.”
