How the release of about a dozen Afghan Taliban leaders from Pakistan's intelligence agencies' custody as goodwill gesture shown to the visiting Afghan High Peace Council delegation will play out, as of now nothing can be said with certainty. But it does generate a base to build on hope that the development has the desired potential to be the proverbial first drop of rain to help restore normality to the long-estranged Pak-Afghan relationship.
Their release was high on the visitors' agenda for quite some time but they came here only on receiving a positive response. None of the two sides has officially announced names of the released leaders, but they are reportedly mid-ranking officials of the erstwhile Mulla Omar-headed Taliban government. Of the top four on the visitors' list that includes former Taliban No 2 Mulla Abdul Ghani Barather the reports say their release would follow if the presently let-offs proved to be of some use in kick-starting the Kabul-Taliban peace process.
The surrender of Afghan Taliban - from Pakistan's point of view more as an incentive to help intra-Afghan reconciliation than as rendition - has been Kabul's lingering demand. But it was not done given that all these years the Pak-Afghan relationship has been adversarial, with accusations and counter-accusations flying across Khyber Pass. That ice of mutual animosity seems to have begun thawing. May be a change of heart has taken place in Kabul or, as ambassador Olson's reaction to the happening suggests, it may be at the urging of Washington D.C. And some would claim, notwithstanding Pakistan's security-oriented perspective on Afghan turmoil the Taliban as movement has lost much of its space in the heart of Pakistani public.
Of course the Karzai government has welcomed the release of Afghan Taliban. But the one-liner issued in Kabul has the tongue-in-cheek flavour; it says 'we welcome this move as a positive step towards Afghanistan's peace process' - as if what Pakistan has done is something different from before. Kabul could be fair and generous, but it was not. Not only this reluctant admission; the day High Peace Council delegation arrived in Islamabad the Afghan artillery fired from across-the-border killing about half-a-dozen Pakistanis. In spite of all this Pakistan acceded to the Afghan government demand and released the held Taliban leaders - a risk it took willingly.
We expect it of Kabul to promptly act against the Swati Taliban who enjoy Afghan hospitality and most often its support in carrying out murderous forays into the Pakistani territory. Peace cannot be delivered in pieces; it has to come as a whole. One sparrow doesn't make a summer. Who knows that the Kabul's game plan may be to place on ground a Taliban proxy; a doubt expressed by a Taliban official who dubbed release episode "just a symbolic gesture to show the world that something happened in this meeting". To him, all those released by the Pakistani authorities are dysfunctional as they are no more members of the Taliban movement. That instead of asking Islamabad to help restart the Doha peace process the Kabul government wants to use discarded bunch of Taliban leaders, the otherwise serious-minded Afghan High Peace Council seems to have taken for a ride by a section of Karzai government functionaries for whom war in their country has proved to be a blessing in disguise.
War or peace in Afghanistan is not an issue between Pakistan and the present Afghan rulers; it's an issue between the Afghan Taliban and the US-led Nato coalition governments. With Nato troop pullout already under way and re-elected President Obama openly saying the 'decade of war is ending' release of some old-vintage Taliban is hardly a bait to motivate the insurgents to come to the Karzai-presided peace negotiations. The Taliban will not talk with Karzai government. It's the United States that has to make the first move and invite the Taliban saying 'we are leaving. You the Taliban together with rest of Afghans should manage your country'. But that doesn't seem to be happening - only yesterday a US official was in Kabul trying to fix a deal with hosts on the question of immunity for post-withdrawal American soldiers against legal process. Of course, you could have it in post-World War-II Okinawa, but not now. The time to fix things for Afghans has passed. Afghanistan should be returned to its people unburdened by any so-called morals in democracy, human frights and good governance. Let them make their own decisions of their choosing.