Islamabad reemerged as the focal capital to help providing some form of a solution of the Afghan problem and this sense was further solidified by Najam Seth, Pakistan veteran journalist, on Farid Zakariya GPS on the CNN that road to the Kabul goes through Islamabad!
Former president Burhanuddin Rabbani Friday (Jan7) wrapped up almost four days of consultations with Pakistani leaders to elicit cooperation for the Afghan reconciliation process with a desire for a more broad-based Pakistani representation in a reconciliation mechanism. ‘It has been a successful consultative round but we need to broaden the Pakistani base for talks because it is not a Pashtoon but an Afghan-Pakistan issue,’ said Rabbani, who heads the 70 member High Peace Council decreed by President Hamid Karzai. We are proposing another Pakistan-Afghan mechanism which must also involve non-Pashtoon segments of the Pakistani society, Rabbani told media, recalling that the earlier Grand Jirga ´ consultative assembly of Pashtoon tribes held at Kabul in 2007, and followed by a smaller meeting at Islamabad in 2009, mostly involved Pashtoon representatives on both sides.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) facilitated the Afghan Council Islamabad visit during which Rabbani and his colleagues met with Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani, Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and several other key civilian and military officials. Later during a dinner hosted by Gilani, both countries agreed to set up a joint Commission to promote the Reconciliation process, resonating Prof. Rabbani call for broadening the Pakistani representation.
The Jirga, said a diplomat, is a people ´to-people process, but the Commission will be the first formal Mechanism to address the reconciliation process. Mohammad Sadiq Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to Kabul, told FP the Commission was the major outcome of the powerful Afghan delegation visit to Islamabad. The modalities of the commission will be worked out in the days to come. The primary objective was to figure out as to what role Pakistan could play in the reconciliation process, a highly placed UN official told FP. The official, requesting anonymity, conceded that the Afghans as well as the international community are clueless as to where to start from.
‘We wonder how can Islamabad help in the peace efforts without inviting flak from the anti-Pakistan segments within the ruling elite of Kabul,’ said the official, alluding to the sizeable number of ministers, bureaucrats and military officials who consider Pakistan as part of the problem. Ambassador Sadiq said Pakistan does not want any role. The reconciliation must be an Afghan-led process and we are ready to facilitate that, Sadiq said. We have told our Afghan friends we will offer any assistance we can but will not lead it.
Coinciding with the Peace Council visit was US AfPak acting envoy Frank Ruggiero fourth visit in seven months to Islamabad. We welcome these consultations and will continue to support the Afghan-led reconciliation efforts, Ruggiero told a select panel of journalists, including FP, and hosted by the state-run Radio Pakistan. The acting AfPak envoy, who continues to look after the office following Richard Holbrook demise in mid December, said the ‘Afghan transition strategy’ was on track and the Allies agree that security would be handed over to Afghan forces by 2014. Rebuilding and raising governance structures, which suffered immensely during three decades of war, was a huge challenge for all the stake-holders in Afghanistan.
Ruggiero, who too met with Gen. Kayani, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and a few others, said the United States remains committed to a long-term civilian assistance program as an essential element of the bilateral relationship. Besides signing two 66 million dollars agreements on power generation and another 190 million dollars to the Pakistan government Citizens– Damage Compensation Fund (CDCF) to help millions of flood affectees. These funds, in addition to the almost 600 million already provided in flood relief operations in summer, will come from the aid package promised under the Kerry Lugar Berman legislation passed in 2009. Ruggiero reiterated support to Pakistan and told panelists that the Strategic Review in December acknowledged the importance and the progress in the bilateral relations. That is why occasional ups and downs do not take us away from the strategic fundamentals of this relationship, Ruggiero said, adding that both countries are now openly discussing ‘even disagreements.’
Ruggiero said his government was encouraging both Pakistan and Afghanistan to increase bilateral consultations on how to tackle the insurgency. Rabbani and UN officials sounded upbeat on their talks in Islamabad but it is still unclear on whether and how Pakistan is positioning itself to use its leverage with some of the Afghan Taliban. Non-Pashtoon Afghans in particular have been wary of Islamabad past involvement in Afghanistan, which banked on Taliban as an extension of Pakistan foreign policy in that country.
Pakistan, senior Pakistani diplomats opined, will continue to remain reluctant in offering any assistance in the reconciliation process, unless asked openly by the United States and the Afghan government for such a role.