Pitfalls of the Peace Council, formed by President Hamid Karzai to facilitate peace talks with Taliban, are starting to emerge. Masum Stanikzai, secretary of Peace Council has said there is possibility of presence of many other types of council inside the Peace Council. While, Mauli Shahzad Shahid, who is a member of the Peace Council, has told a radio news channel that, the provincial peace committees formed in the last one year or so, are mismanaged and have had no significant achievements.
Shahid said, "The members of the Peace Council have established no direct contacts with Taliban in their concerned areas, although they get job partially done through others." Shahid talks about the incapability of Peace Council at times, when high ranks of the this council give hope to the people of Afghanistan saying there will be a breakthrough in talks with the Taliban in the near future ending the conflict in Afghanistan. But now that the Peace Council members themselves are not contented with the performance of the council, hopes for peace through talks with Taliban diminish.
Since its establishment, the Peace Council has been accompanied by objections from various circles. The Council has 68 members including eight women. Most of the members are the ones who once fought against the Taliban.
The Taliban still see them as their enemies. It deems the peace reconciliation program an American propaganda being implemented through the puppet government of Hamid Karzai. Although the Peace Council has, generally, maintained that there will be a peace deal with Taliban very soon, one can not be hopeful as such promises and claims have been made for certain times in past.
The Council has failed to established direct contacts with the leaderships of Taliban, Hizbi Islami and Haqqani Network. And those militants, who have joined the peace process, have been seen re-joining Taliban or involved in attack against Afghan and NATO forces.
This has diminished the trust of people over how the process of reconciliation with Taliban is going on. If there is improvement to involve Taliban in negotiation, we should also observe improvement in security condition. Until that is obvious, the government is definitely flying blind.