Pakistan’s follow-up action on terror tag for Taliban leader is an invite for talks

Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is expected to hold talks with the Imran Khan government and the military leadership

Less than a week after taking steps to enforce UN Security Council sanctions against hundreds of terrorists, Pakistan on Monday invited a Taliban delegation led by one of the UN-designated leaders for talks on Afghanistan’s troubled peace process.

Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar reached Islamabad on Monday at the invitation of the Pakistan government, days after he was designated as a terrorist by the foreign ministry under a UNSC resolution.(REUTERS)

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and deputy political chief of the group, was among the scores of Taliban and Haqqani Network operatives named in a statutory regulatory order issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Office on August 18 to enforce the UN sanctions, which include a freeze on assets, a travel ban and ensuring they cannot access weapons.

Baradar and the delegation of senior Taliban leaders arrived in Islamabad from Doha in Qatar on Monday, and are expected to hold talks with Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership.

Pakistan’s recent move to enforce the UN sanctions, which also apply to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and hundreds of terrorists, was widely perceived as having been taken with an eye on an upcoming assessment of the country’s counter-terror financing regime by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The assessment is expected in October.

People familiar with developments said the invitation to the sanctioned Taliban leader underlined Pakistan’s reluctance to sincerely take action against terrorist individuals and entities.

“How can one take the notification they issued on August 18 seriously when this is the next step taken by them?” said one of the people cited above.

Baradar, currently one of the Taliban’s main negotiators, had signed the peace deal with the US in February. He was arrested in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 2010 and was released from prison in 2018 as part of Islamabad’s efforts to wield greater influence in the Afghan peace process.

Pakistan’s statutory regulatory order of August 18 states that a request to extradite Baradar to Afghanistan is pending in the Lahore high court, and that he was a member of the Taliban’s Quetta Shura (council).

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted on Monday that Baradar and his delegation were visiting Islamabad at the “invitation of Pakistan’s foreign ministry” for talks on developments in the Afghan peace process, and “relaxation and facilitation of peoples’ movement” and trade between the two countries.

Taliban officials visit other countries to further “positive relations” and convey the group’s stance on the peace process. “These visits were postponed due to the spread of Covid-19 but the series has been resumed now,” he said.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a news conference on Monday the talks with the Taliban were aimed at bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan. “I invited them and will have a detailed meeting with them tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.

Qureshi also said the Taliban leaders were visiting Pakistan at Islamabad’s invitation and the process wouldn’t be hampered by the UN sanctions.

Sameer Patil, fellow for international security studies at Gateway House, said Pakistan was more intent on protecting its political interests than cracking down on terror.

“FATF began increasing the pressure on Pakistan after several attacks by anti-India terrorist groups based in Pakistan. Since then, Pakistan has taken some steps to show it is acting on FATF’s action plan. But it will keep on protecting its political interests, over and above what it does for FATF,” he said.

“This invitation to Mullah Baradar shows it is doing exactly that. Once global pressure eases, there is no guarantee that Pakistan will continue with even these token restrictions,” he added.