PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Sunday asked the federal government to approve the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for its talks with Afghanistan on surging militancy “as soon as possible,” following a blast in the province that killed a top cleric days ago.
KP government said in February that it had decided to send two delegations, comprising tribal elders, religious scholars, and political leaders, to Kabul to engage in direct talks with the Afghan Taliban rulers for peace and stability in the province. It followed a statement by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, in which he said the security situation in the region was directly linked to “developments in neighboring Afghanistan,” following a consultative meeting of various religious and political parties in the province.
KP government spokesperson Muhammad Ali Saif had said the delegation would be sent after the center approved the ToRs for talks with Afghanistan. Pakistan’s foreign office had said last month it was not informed of KP’s decision to engage in talks with Kabul, adding that external ties with another country fell under the federal government’s jurisdiction.
Saif demanded the center approve the ToRs without further delay after a suicide blast within a pro-Taliban seminary in northwestern Pakistan on Friday killed a top cleric and four other worshippers, wounding dozens of others.
“The federation should approve the ToRs of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for talks with Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Saif said, adding that the provincial government wanted to send the delegation to Afghanistan “on an emergency basis.”
He urged the center to avoid politicizing the issue, saying that the responsibility of protecting the lives of the people of KP was the provincial government’s responsibility.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in the country, particularly in KP that borders Afghanistan, since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Islamabad broke down in November 2022.
The TTP and other militant groups have frequently targeted security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.
Pakistan’s top military and political leadership has blamed the surge in violence on TTP militants launching cross-border attacks from Afghanistan, accusing Kabul of harboring and facilitating them. Afghanistan denies the allegation and says Pakistan’s security is an internal matter of Islamabad.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
As per the ToR document seen by Arab News last month, the KP government has proposed sending a delegation of tribal elders, religious scholars, and political leaders to engage with their Afghan counterparts and address mutual concerns, particularly peace, security, cross-border trade and economic cooperation, through “tribal diplomacy.”
The KP delegation’s objectives include strengthening cross-border tribal diplomacy, confidence-building measures between tribal communities and authorities in both countries and facilitating dialogue on regional peace and stability, the document said.
The ToRs state that the delegations would seek to curtail cross-border militancy by engaging tribal elders to “dissuade terrorist organizations from using Afghan territory for launching attacks in Pakistan and seek cooperation in monitoring and preventing TTP and other militant groups’ movement across the border.”
