Pak-Afghan talks in Islamabad end in deadlock

ISLAMABAD: The two-day Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) talks being held at the Foreign Office ended in a deadlock on Saturday, where strong differences emerged and in a rare move, not even the mandatory press statement was issued.

“I would not say completely deadlocked, but rather that the talks have stalled. Both sides have indicated in their statements and tweets that there is still room for future engagement on issues where there was no meeting of minds. Some hope is still there for future talks though no dates were agreed upon,” a senior official told The News.

The Ashraf Ghani government on the return of its delegation to Kabul announced in a formal statement through its Foreign Office that, “While some progress was made on the mechanism of cooperation, no progress was achieved on specific, results-oriented, time-bound measures in the APAPPS, particularly in the areas of counter terrorism, reduction of violence, peace and reconciliation to meet the priorities of Afghanistan”.

Earlier in the afternoon, in an informal manner on the social media, the spokesman at the Foreign Office tweeted, “Pak-Afghanistan talks. Two days of good discussions. Some agreements. Further work required.”

With the entire press corps breathing down his neck, the spokesman stood his ground and refused to elaborate when asked about what the ‘agreements’ were and what were the issues on which ‘further work’ was required.

“I have been instructed by the Foreign Secretary, Ms Tehmina Janjua to tweet these four sentences and I have done so. I am unable to answer any question or elaborate on issues that have been tweeted,” he told The News.

The Afghan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai left for Kabul in the evening.

The second round of the APAPPS talks started on Friday morning but officially no comment was made regarding the meeting. Saturday saw the second day of talks which also included a working lunch at the Foreign Office with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua leading Pakistan’s delegation of senior civil and military officials.

Reading the fine print of the statement from Kabul, it is clear that the main difference where there was no agreement was on allegations that Pakistan is continuing to provide safe havens to the Afghan Taliban from where militants carry out terrorist activities inside Afghanistan. This is similar to the demands being made by the Trump administration with Pakistan denying that there were any Afghan Taliban or members of the Haqqani network on its soil.

Another difference between the two sides is Pakistan’s fencing of the Pak-Afghan border to stop illegal crossings, a move opposed by Kabul. Pakistan insists that it will continue to work on effective border management and has so far built border fencing along more than 160 kilometres area.

“Since it is a long border, mutual cooperation is essential to build fencing and develop check posts on both sides of the territory, to which Pakistan is deeply committed,” the spokesman at the FO had remarked earlier.

The statements from the Afghan Foreign Office also hint at Pakistan not doing enough to push the Afghan Taliban towards the negotiating table. The Afghan side wanted more progress on initiating an all Afghan dialogue with Pakistan pushing the Afghan Taliban to come to the negotiating table. Islamabad has said several times that they can request but not force the Afghan Taliban towards talks.

Anyway, with an upper hand in the battlefield where day by day more territory is falling to them, the Afghan Taliban have very strong conditions before they walk towards the negotiations table.

Pakistan nevertheless is supportive of an all Afghan dialogue where engagement and dialogue was crucial for the way forward with the political process being the most viable solution. “We had welcomed the peace deal between Afghan government and the Hizb-e-Islami. We believe it can serve as model to negotiate similar deals with other insurgent groups including Taliban. For this to happen, Afghan Government should come up with a plan of reconciliation,” the spokesman had told a media briefing on Friday.

He added that the peace deal between Kabul and Hizb-e-Islami has exhibited that if the parties are sincere and there is political will then desired results can be achieved and sustained.

Differences during the talks continued on the return of the Afghan refugees back to their homes as well. Pakistan wants the refugees to return as quickly as possible especially because these refugee villages provide safe havens for the Afghan Taliban to hide in once they cross the border. Pakistan has consistently maintained that Afghan refugees must be encouraged to return to their homeland through creation of necessary ‘pull factors’ by the Afghan government, which include provision of housing, employment, wellbeing and other basic amenities, that act as incentives for their comfortable and sustainable livelihood in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan citing security and economic issues is reluctant to take them back.

“The matter of the safe and early repatriation of the Afghan refugees to Afghanistan with dignity remains a fundamental concern for Pakistan.

We have repeatedly raised this issue with the Afghan government and the international community, spokesman at the Foreign Office had said on Friday.

The APAPPS was set up as a joint action plan for cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism and reduction of violence, peace and reconciliation, refugees repatriation and joint economic development.

Saturday also saw reports of the Afghan Taliban releasing 17 Pakistani hostages kidnapped from Landikotal five months back. “I am unaware of this development,” spokesman at the Foreign Office told The News.