Meeting of Pakistani, Afghan leaders on OIC sidelines raises hopes of better ties

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan met on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on Friday, raising hopes of better ties at a time when the Afghan government has been left out of crucial talks to find a negotiated settlement to the 17-year-long Afghan war.  
Taliban representatives have been talking with US diplomats for months about withdrawing more than 20,000 US and NATO coalition troops in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for militant attacks.
They have also met senior Afghan politicians and civil society representatives, most recently in Moscow this week, as part of a so-called intra-Afghan dialogue to discuss the country’s future.
But they have shown no sign of agreeing to demands for a ceasefire and formal negotiations with President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which the Taliban consider an illegitimate, foreign-appointed regime.
The prime minister’s office said on Saturday Khan had “underlined Pakistan's firm support for an Afghan-led and Afghan owned peace process for political solution in Afghanistan” during his meeting with Ghani.
Special Assistant to PM Khan on Political Affairs, Naeem Ul Haque, also took to Twitter to share details of the meeting: “Excellent hour long meeting of PM Imran Khan with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The meeting was very cordial and touched all aspects of Pak Afghan relationship including economic relations as well as the role of Taliban in resolving the Afghan situation.”
Afghanistan has put a pause on bilateral meetings with Pakistan since November when officials of the two countries met in Islamabad to discuss the repatriation of approximately 1.4 million undocumented Afghan refugees who live in Pakistan. But President Ghani’s phone call to Imran Khan on May 5 marked the revival of high level interaction. Ghani has also accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan this month.
“The Afghan government has not been visible in the negotiation process between the Taliban and the US. The Afghan government feels Pakistan still has some clout with the Taliban even if some do not accept this notion,” retired Pakistani brigadier Muhammad Ishaq Khattak said.
Ghani’s phone call was followed by the visit to Pakistan of Afghanistan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib for high level security talks with senior Pakistani defence officials, including Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
As relations between Pakistani and Afghan have seen some improvement in recent days, both sides have also agreed to revive a much-publicized bilateral Afghanistan Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS), officials and Afghan diplomats say.
Afghan deputy foreign minister Idrees Zaman is expected to visit Islamabad soon after Eid-ul-Fitr, most likely on June 10, for a review meeting on the APAPPS with the Pakistani foreign secretary.
On Saturday, the head of the Afghan Taliban pledged to continue fighting until the movement’s objectives were reached and indicated it was still not ready to open talks with the Western-backed government in Kabul.
In his annual message ahead of next week’s Eid al-Fitr holiday, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada sought to reassure Afghans that the Taliban wanted an end to decades of conflict and a government that represents all Afghans.
He also gave no sign the Taliban would repeat last year’s truce over the three-day Eid holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which led to unprecedented scenes of Taliban fighters and government soldiers mingling and even embracing in the streets of Kabul.
“No one should expect us to pour cold water on the heated battlefronts of Jihad or forget our 40-year sacrifices before reaching our objectives,” he said in the message, adding that the Taliban aimed for “an end to the occupation and establishment of an Islamic system”.