KABUL (SW) – President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said today peace cannot be achieved behind closed doors through a minority.
Addressing a ‘Youth Conference for Peace’ here on Wednesday, Ghani said the key to peace lies in Islamabad, Queeta and Rawalpindi. This was in clear reference to the US Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s remarks in which he said key to peace lies in Kabul.
In his remarks today, the President said Afghanistan does not want a passing peace, but a sustainable one.
Ghani also underlined the government’s will to bring reforms in the Independent Election Commission, and implement biometric verification of voters for the next polls. He said the results of the proposed presidential elections should be announced transparently within two days of the polls. The President stressed presidential candidates should share their peace proposals with the masses.
The President said he has been working for up to 16 hours a day because others have not been doing thier part of work properly.
- Illegitimacy of the elections
Meanwhile, the former head of the Taliban’s Qatar office, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, has said in a video statement that the polls in Afghanistan are not transparent, and the government formed through such elections has no legitimacy in the eyes of the Taliban. He said Afghanistan is ‘under the shadows of invasion’ and the National Unity Government lacks independence therefore the elections are illegitimate.
He claimed elections with less than 10 per cent of turnout cannot represent all people of Afghanistan. Stanikzai added President Ghani also lacks independence, and receives dictation from the U.S.
The latest round of the fast-tracked talks between the U.S and the Taliban took place in Qatar.
Many prominent political figures are calling for prominent role of the Afghan government in these talks. Haneef Atmar, one of the presidential candidates, has tweeted that ‘the government can only play a key role when it comes out of isolation and discriminative approach, unite the nation and pay sacrifice of power for peace”. He has asserted that this government cannot lead the peace process.
ENDS
