Afghan leaders in Pakistan for peace summit

Islamabad, June 22 

Dozens of Afghan political leaders attended a peace conference in neighbouring Pakistan on Saturday to pave the way for further Afghan-to-Afghan dialogue.

The conference is to be followed by meetings and working sessions over the next two days, all of which come in the run-up to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan next week.

Ghani, his political opponents and a broad swath of Afghan civil society have been holding meetings in recent days with the United States’ special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who continues to press for talks between the Afghan government, the opposition and the Taliban. There are no representatives of the Taliban at Saturday’s conference, held near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

However, attending the conference is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who struck a peace deal with Ghani’s government and was taken off a US terrorist list. 

That peace deal was touted as a blueprint for an agreement with the Taliban, although the insurgents dismissed Hekmatyar as a spent force with no military might.

Washington has been holding talks with the Taliban to find a negotiated exit to its 17-year engagement in Afghanistan. 

It wasn’t clear when Khalilzad would meet again with the militants, who control or wield significant influence in nearly half of the country. The Taliban have refused to sit with government representatives but say they will sit with any Afghan, even a government official, but as an ordinary Afghan and not as a government representative. — AP

Qureshi: Not looking for ‘strategic depth’ 

• Pakistan on Saturday reiterated its resolve to support efforts to bring peace in the war-torn Afghanistan and clarified that the country was not looking for “strategic depth” in the neighbouring country
• The idea of strategic depth was mooted by some experts that influence over Kabul will give Islamabad an edge in case of a war with India
• The conference, Lahore Process on Afghan peace held at Murree, assumes significance as it is being held just before the visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan on June 27