Pakistan, Islamabad: Today, a road map of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) on Afghan peace and reconciliation is expected to adopt for peace talks when it meets. However, the formal start of dialogue between the Afghan government and Taliban still looks like it is months away. This would be the third meeting of the group comprising officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, US and China.
The four countries Pak, Afghanistan, China and United States (US) agreed to work together last December on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference to revive the Afghan reconciliation process. The previous two meetings were held in Islamabad and Kabul in January. The roadmap which is intended to guide the efforts of starting a peace dialogue between the Afghan government and militants was China’s idea.
They insisted on a plan for the effort and documenting the process, said a source. “The roadmap is one thing that distinguishes this initiative from the process that started in Murree and was disrupted weeks later when it transpired that Mullah Omar was dead,” the source claimed. Afghanistan proposed the draft of the roadmap at the first QCG meeting in Islamabad.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, who is leading his side at the four-way talks, had said after the first round that the draft envisaged a three stage process – the pre-negotiation period, direct peace talks with Taliban groups and the implementation phase. Pakistan gave its input on the draft later. The four countries have discussed the blueprint “section by section” and it is now at a point where it can be adopted. The plan is said to have evolved since the Afghan government made the initial proposal.