Recent developments in Pakistan suggest that the military regime here is willing to persuade the Taliban to moderate its policies and is even agreeable to facilitate a political dialogue between Russia and the Taliban.
Recent developments in Pakistan suggest that the military regime here is willing to persuade the Taliban to moderate its policies and is even agreeable to facilitate a political dialogue between Russia and the Taliban.
Some countries are already in touch with the Taliban. This was borne out by foreign minister Abdus Sattar's interview last week in which he said: "The Taliban government's recent contacts with the key western countries and Russia's willingness to engage them in political dialogue was the success of Pakistan's diplomatic endeavours." Sattar's contention is bolstered by Francesc Vendrell, the UN special envoy for Afghanistan, who said last week that the Taliban was willing to hold unconditional talks with its opponents for evolving a political settlement in Afghanistan.
Already, the military regime is making the right noises. Pakistan's interior minister Lt Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider has criticised the Taliban's alleged support to the Chechens. He has also urged it to hammer a political solution in Afghanistan through parleys with rival groups.
Foreign office sources say that this visible change in Islamabad's Taliban policy has come about following ISI's director-general Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad's Moscow visit and Russian president's special envoy Sergei Yastrazhembsky's trip to Islamabad. The latter subsequently disclosed that Pakistan had agreed to contain radical Islamic groups training Chechen separatists.
Avers former foreign minister Sahibzada Yaqoob Ali Khan: "Moscow fears that once the Taliban consolidates their power by defeating the Northern Alliance, they would support Islamic uprisings in Central Asia." Pakistan, he says, has agreed to broker a Russia-Taliban dialogue because it is desperate to earn international goodwill.
But former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto feels Islamabad is romancing Russia-and moderating the Taliban-only because it is miffed at its inability to woo back American aid. In a newspaper article she wrote: "Islamabad, long a strategic player, is unable to come to terms with the new world order where markets are more important than military positions.... Given, the Taliban are breathing down the Central Asian neck, Islamabad believes that its value in the eyes of Russia will go up. This, it calculates, will make the Americans take notice once again. But can Pakistan hope to once again enter a new great game?" That's a sticky question, indeed.
Tags