Pakistan has dived headlong into the Afghanistan reconciliation process by taking on the task of acting as a bridge between the Haqqani network and the government in Kabul, Dawn has learnt.
“Preliminary contacts have been established with Siraj Haqqani and other leaders of his group through intermediaries in a bid to engineer a rapprochement with the Karzai administration,” a senior security official told Dawn. The intermediaries, the source claims, have presented a roadmap for a political settlement between Kabul and the Haqqanis.
If the plan is accepted by the two sides, it could bring peace to the war-torn country, claim government officials. The Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani group is considered the most potent warring faction in Afghanistan and is viewed as a serious threat by the Karzai regime and also by the American troops there. “Although the future of the initiative is unclear at the moment, the initial signs are encouraging because the leadership of the militant group appears to be willing (to talk),” the security official said. However, Pakistani officials are reluctant to discuss the matter in detail and hence few details are available about the talks. The initiative on the part of the Pakistan government has followed overtures from the Afghanistan government. Analysts agree that there has been a change in the attitude of Afghan President Hamid Karzai towards Pakistan in recent weeks.
Mr Karzai’s hostile statements against Islamabad seem to have stopped; in fact he acknowledged Pakistan’s role in the reconciliation process in his visit to Islamabad in March. In addition, resignations by Afghanistan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh and interior minister Hanif Atmar are also likely to help improve relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even though Mr Saleh ostensibly quit bec-ause of a security failure, a rocket attack during a jirga held in Kabul in the first week of June, observers po-int out that his departure fro-m the government fulfils a long-standing demand of Pakistan.
In fact, Mr Saleh has been quite vocal in his criticism of Mr Karzai since his resignation.