Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday welcomed the recommendation of a traditional Afghan council to release the remaining 400 Taliban prisoners and hoped that the move would help in early negotiations between the fighting sides of Afghanistan. The traditional Afghan council concluded on Sunday with hundreds of delegates agreeing to release 400 Taliban members. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement, “We hope that the implementation of this step relating to the release of prisoners under the US-Taliban peace deal will allow inter-Afghan negotiations to begin as soon as possible.” The agreement between the US and the Taliban calls for the release of 5,000 prisoners from the government and the release of 1,000 government and military personnel from the Taliban as a gesture of goodwill before the talks.
The statement said that Pakistan has repeatedly emphasized that Afghan leaders should take advantage of this historic opportunity and creatively through inter-Afghan negotiations for a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan. Should work. It added that the international community should also extend its support for the success of inter-Afghan negotiations for sustained and long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan. He said that Pakistan has consistently supported the peace and reconciliation process led by Afghanistan and owned by it. Pakistan’s positive contribution to this process has been recognized internationally.
The Afghanistan High Peace Council (HPC) is a body of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program, established by Hamid Karzai to negotiate with elements of the Taliban. The HPC was established on 5 September 2010. The current chairman of the council is former Afghan Vice-President Karim Khalili who was appointed to the post in June 2017. The Council was initially chaired by former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani until his assassination in 2011.
