News Analysis: Pakistan seeks political options as quartet to hold crucial meet on Afghan peace

As senior officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are scheduled to meet in Islamabad soon to discuss prospects for the Afghan peace process, Pakistan believes political negotiation is still the best option to find a solution to the protracted problem.

The upcoming meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) is seen as vitally important as Afghanistan is now pushing for action against the Taliban after they have publicly refused to come to the negotiation table and have also stepped up attacks with the launch of their annual "Spring Offensive."

As special envoys of the QCG will gather in the Pakistani capital in a few days, Kabul's top envoy in Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal, has formally suggested to the group to declare the Taliban situation as "irreconcilable." The QCG that was launched in December for the "Peace and Reconciliation in Afghanistan" is now in a fix over the divergence of opinion within the group on how to deal with the Taliban.

There is no doubt the U.S. and its NATO allies failed to solve the problem through military operations over the past 14 years, despite the presence of nearly 160,000 troops with fully military power. More Afghans will surely die if this war continues.

The Afghan government has genuine concerns about the Taliban's violence as it would be very hard for any government to sit in negotiations with armed opponents if their security forces and the people are being brutally killed in fighting and bomb attacks. Although the government was under pressure to change its policy of reconciliation with the Taliban, political options should not be totally rejected, observers have maintained.

A vast majority in Afghanistan has thrown its weight behind the government policy to hold intra-Afghan dialogue with another resistance movement, Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan.

Both sides have reported progress in the talks and a peace treaty is most likely to be signed in weeks that could put some pressure on the Taliban to review their war policy. If the Taliban have a political office in Qatar, they should not hesitate to use this option, political sources close to the matter have urged.

Pakistan Foreign Affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate last week that Pakistan has been impressing upon the U.S. and the Afghan side that the reconciliation process needs to be given a fair chance and more time. Aziz said irreconcilable elements can be targeted after concerted negotiation efforts have failed.

In view of the different approaches, the upcoming meeting of the QCG has assumed a great deal of importance in developing a consensus on how to proceed as all member countries have a shared responsibility. Diplomats will mainly focus on the roadmap that was agreed upon in the last QCG round held in Kabul in February.

Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal insists that the roadmap was precisely about the steps that the QCG member countries needed to take in their respective or relevant domains, both during peace talks if they began and also if the Taliban refused to join the talks.

"Now that the Taliban has publicly refused to join the talks and opted for more violence, the second scenario is applicable," Zakhilwal told Xinhua in an interview recently.

Despite different approaches, the four-nation process is still the best available option to be used to find a political solution to the Afghan problem.

As the Afghan issue is very complicated, it needs patience. If a problem could not be solved in 15 years through military means, some time should be given to political or diplomatic processes. No one can endorse violence or acts of terrorism, but incidents of such should not derail the whole process, political analysts with knowledge of the situation have generally concurred. Endit