Taliban, Afghan leaders ‘hopeful’ of forming inclusive govt, says Pakistan’s envoy

KABUL: Terming the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan a “difficult and complex” process, Pakistan envoy to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmed Khan Friday said that the Taliban and the country’s political leadership were hopeful of reaching a consensus on it.

Speaking to Geo News from Kabul, Mansoor Ahmed said engagement with the Afghan Taliban was ongoing under the peace process for the last two years and the prime concern of the international community is that only an inclusive government can ensure lasting peace in the war-torn country.

Since the Ashraf Ghani government was ousted and the Taliban took over, efforts are being made and consultations are underway between the Taliban and Afghan leaders, including former president Hamid Karzai, Dr Abdulla Abdullah and Gulbadin Hekmatyar for the formation of an inclusive government, he added.

When asked whether he was hopeful of the establishment of an inclusive government in Afghanistan, he said, “I have talked to both sides and my feedback is that they are hopeful of moving closer to that objective in the next few days and we are also hopeful that both parties will try to achieve it, but that will be a difficult and complex process.”

Sharing his assessment about the hurdles, the Pakistani envoy said it is difficult because there are complex ethnic dimensions in Afghanistan, while the Taliban call themselves representative of Pashtuns, there are non-Pashtun groups as well.

“And when we talk about an inclusive government through political settlement, a major issue is what sort of constitution is acceptable. Both sides have different opinions. Human rights is also an important issue that remains to be discussed and the inclusivity element is also needed to be addressed."

Mansoor Ahmed Khan, who had met the Afghan leaders over the last few days after the Taliban takeover, said he calls it a complex process because bringing all these forces at one point is difficult.

He was also asked about whether the Taliban are showing flexibility in the talks.

To this he said, "the negotiations held with Taliban in the last two years are very clear and the international community's aspirations were conveyed to the Tailban that an inclusive political setup which has rule of law which also respects human rights, women's rights and according to the wishes of the people of Afghanistan will be acceptable to the world.”

The envoy said, in his understanding, the Taliban now realise that the concerns were raised after the exclusive government they established in the 1990s.