Afghanistan ‘running out of patience with Pakistan

Islamabad: Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office has said that patience is running out with Pakistan as the country has not taken practical measures to maintain peace with Kabul.

The statement was made after Karzai left on Tuesday for talks in Brussels with top US and Pakistani officials aimed at reviving faltering efforts to bring peace to his country. Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said Pakistan has not taken practical measures towards the Afghan peace process so far. According to the Express Tribune, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it “remains committed to continue its positive and constructive role towards a durable peace in Afghanistan”. But Faizi last month said Pakistan had now abandoned the peace process and imposed “impossible” preconditions on any further discussions. Pakistan has released at least 26 Afghan Taliban prisoners in recent months, a move that Kabul welcomed in the hope that they could help persuade the Taliban to enter into peace talks. But there is little evidence that the prisoners have done so and Kabul is now increasingly impatient that other detainees, including former Afghan Taliban deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, have not been handed over, the paper said. ANI