Simultaneous with advances of peace process, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, for the second time, prescribed an interim government to skip the current deadlock in Afghanistan.He added that the current Afghan government is creating a barrier to peace efforts. This has faced wide waves of criticism among Afghan the US and Afghan political communities; Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan said in a tweet that, “While Pakistan has made constructive contributions on the Afghan Peace Process, PM Khan’s comments did not. The future of Afghanistan is for Afghans, and only Afghans, to decide. The role of the international community is to encourage Afghans to come together so they can do so.” And John Rodney Bass, the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan said in a tweet that, “Some aspects of cricket apply well in diplomacy, some do not.” It is important for “Imran Khan, to resist temptation to ball-tamper with the Afghanistan peace process and its internal affairs.”
The former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, with issuing a statement termed it an “explicit intervention” in Afghanistan, saying that Pakistani officials should refrain from such statements. “We strongly support friendly relations with the neighboring and regional countries based on mutual respect,” Karzai said in a statement. “Therefore, we call on the Pakistani government and all other countries to avoid making such expressions and interfering in the internal affairs of Afghanistan under any means including the idea for the establishment of an interim administration.”Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president for the upcoming election on Twitter, wrote that Pakistan has proposed the overthrow of the constitution and the destruction of the democratic system as a way to break the current deadlock. He said this is the cost that Pakistani intelligence wanted to restrain terrorism! Nazifullah Salarzai, Deputy Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, also said in a tweet to Imran Khan in critic language: Mr Khan, stop “Ball tampering” and “Match Fixing” in the Afghan peace process, we know who Taliban flirt with, have an affair and sleep with.” Rahmatullah Nabil, a presidential candidate, also wrote on Twitter that the Pakistani PM has proposed an interim government based on the intelligence’s request. “Based on the instruction of ISI, the Pakistani PM once again suggested the establishment of an interim government in AFG while the same demand was expressed in Balkh yesterday. It is very likely that the handlers are the same for both, or they think the same for Afghanistan. For sure it is not a coincidence,” Nabil tweeted.
The Afghan government has been always blaming Pakistan for harboring key Taliban leaders on its soil and providing them with sanctuaries to stage war against Afghan forces and their foreign counterparts. Government officials believe that an interim government in the country was not in the interest of the Afghan people and the country as a whole. Earlier, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah rejected the prospects for the creation of an interim government in Afghanistan, saying there is no possibility for the creation of an interim administration, as it does not support the interests of the country.
Last month, Ghani reacted to reports on a plan to establish an interim government in the country as part of a peace plan and said the plan has been outlined outside the country and that it is not applicable in Afghanistan.“Those who are afraid of the people are talking about an interim government. This is a foreign scheme and has been outlined outside the country and it is failed in this homeland,” he added. “Afghans are selecting the president of Afghanistan,” and that “Islamabad, Tehran and Moscow do not hold the right to elect [Afghanistan’s president]”.
The demand of the Pakistani prime minister came simultaneous to the recent demand of presidential candidate Hanif Atmar in Balkh province, “the current government will end in May, after which a government will have to run the country”. He stressed that the term of the National Unity Government, led by President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, will not have legitimacy after May 22 and that Afghans are reaching to a consensus about this. “Our nation is gradually coming to a consensus that the continuation of the incumbent government has no legitimacy after May 22. We do not want anything beyond the Constitution,” Atmar reiterated. “We are not seeking to create a power vacuum but for sure we want sincere efforts for peace and elections, not a hindrance to the processes. Therefore, establishing an interim government based on the Constitution will be our top priority so that we assure our nation that peace and elections are coming,” Atmar added.
In response to Hanif Atmar’s statement, Shah Hussein Mortazavi, the deputy spokesman for President Ghani on his Twitter, described it “dance of interim administration with mechanism of the neighboring.”However, Atmar said in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon that he sees Imran Khan’s remarks as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. “Recent statement by Pakistani prime minister is interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. The Afghan government derives its legitimacy from the Afghan people, but not from the leaders of regional countries who strive to meddle in our internal affairs and decide on the future of our government and our politics,” Atmar said.
Meanwhile, John R. Bass, US Ambassador to Afghanistan as quoted said on Tuesday that interim government was not a topic of discussion between US and Taliban negotiators in Doha.”We are only talking to Taliban about two inter-connected issues that directly affect US forces and US policy concerns about the prospect of Afghanistan continuing to be a safe haven for international terrorist organizations,” he said. “That is all we are talking to the Taliban about. We are not talking to the Taliban about interim governments; we are not talking to the Taliban about issues related to the current Afghan Constitution and the current structure of government. We are not talking to them about these issues because it is for Afghans, representatives of this society, representatives of the government of wider society, to talk to the Taliban about those issues.” Bass added that they have views on those issues and the US’s goal is to help produce a settlement that preserves the gains of the last seventeen years.