Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif promises push for talks with Afghan Taliban

Kabul: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has promised to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai's attempts at peace and reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

Answering a question on top Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former key aide, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the PM said, "Mullah Baradar has been released. We discussed the matter and agreed on a mechanism to be implemented to allow the High Peace Council or HPC to continue talks with Baradar." Mr Sharif also reportedly met Baradar's cousin in Kabul.

Baradar, a former Taliban second-in-command, has been released from detention in Pakistan. But he still hasn't gone to Afghanistan for talks as desired by President Karzai. The HPC, designated for talks with the Taliban, had travelled to Pakistan and met Baradar last month.

Afghan officials though have said there was no talk in that meeting because Baradar appeared drugged. Mr Sharif has also met with an HPC team headed by Salauddin Rabbani in Kabul.

In the joint press conference, President Karzai said, "A few days ago, Salauddin Rabbani visited Pakistan. So we discussed the peace process. We discussed how Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US can work together to bring peace in the region."

Mr Sharif said, "In our view, the key to a sustainable peace in Afghanistan 2014 and beyond is an inclusive political settlement. That is why Pakistan has steadfastly supported an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process."

Pakistan is crucial for attempts at peace since it supported the Taliban government from 1996 to 2001. The ISI is also known to have intricate contacts with the Afghan Taliban.

Talks with the Taliban are currently dead in the water after President Karzai reacted furiously to the US-brokered Taliban office in Qatar. Mr Karzai argued it was set up with the trappings of a government in exile.

Af-Pak Talks and Tension

The talks between the two sides come during tension along the disputed Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Officials say nearly 40 rounds of artillery have been fired in to the eastern Kunar province in the last 48 hours. Afghanistan says 18 people have been killed in firing by the Pakistan army in 2013.

Local reports say the Pakistan military has been shelling the eastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces over the last year. Tension intensified when an Afghan border guard was killed and three Pakistani military personnel were injured in an exchange of fire in the Goshta district earlier this year.

Curiously, the shelling came just as Nawaz Sharif prepared to have talks with President Karzai mirroring the situation on the LoC and the border just before and during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York.

Poetry Diplomacy

President Karzai translated a question from an Afghan journalist for the Pakistan PM after Mr Sharif quipped that he had put on the translator's headphones a little late.

President Karzai said, "The question is from a quote by famous Farsi poet Iqbal Lahori's poem -Afghanistan is at the heart of Asia. If anything goes wrong in Afghanistan, things go wrong in Asia. If anything good happens in Afghanistan, things go good in Asia. Do you agree?"

Mr Sharif replied twice with a vehement, "We strongly believe in this."

Afghanistan, Pakistan Talk Trade, Energy

The two leaders also discussed a plan to expand an electricity distribution network - the CASA-1000 - to ship surplus power from the Central Asian countries of Kyrgystan and Tajikistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Mr Sharif also said he discussed the TAPI project, a planned natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.

India Watches Pakistan's Moves

While the discussion on the TAPI pipeline will bring cheer to Indian diplomats, talks with the Taliban will also be closely monitored by New Delhi.

India has always been worried about talks with the so-called 'good' Taliban and has stressed that 'red-lines' should not be crossed.

New Delhi is also concerned that any peace process will have across India's border with Pakistan. Militant activity in Jammu and Kashmir had intensified in the decade after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.