Peace needed

The Afghan peace accord seems to be running into the ground with each passing day. The first contention arose when President Ashraf Ghani refused to release five thousand Taliban prisoners before the formal talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Norway. These talks can now obviously not take place on time, as the Taliban refused to meet the Afghan delegation before the prisoner’s issue was resolved as per the peace agreement.

The Taliban then dropped their own bombshell. In a statement they said, that it was their duty to set up the “Islamic government in Afghanistan’’ that existed before US forces toppled their government in Kabul in 2001. The Taliban asserted that their leader was the “only legal ruler of Afghanistan’’ and after the withdrawal of foreign troops, it was their right to make a legal claim for forming an Islamic government in Kabul. The US and Russia have stated that they would not accept an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan. One can only hope and pray that all Afghan parties to the conflict make sincere effort for the success of the peace agreement, so that Afghans get a break from decades of conflict and bloodshed.

Akbar Jan Marwat

Islamabad