Speakers at a consultation in Islamabad on Friday urged that both Pakistan and Afghanistan should start fresh negotiations to break the ongoing deadlock over the issue Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and cross-border terrorism.

They said that Pakistan lacked continuity in its policies towards Afghanistan and added that Islamabad should form some “realistic and holistic” policy for the neighbouring country, which must be brought into public domain to make it more productive, Pakistan’s The Nation newspaper reported.

Academics, politicians, journalists, religious scholars, and experts on Afghan affairs, etc., from Pakistan and Afghanistan expressed these views at a consultation on “Afghan peace and reconciliation: Pakistan’s interests and policy options.”

The consultation was the 9th one in a series of discussions organised by Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad- based research and advocacy think tank, on the Afghan peace process.

The discussants said that Pakistan should avoid talking to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in a “tough tone” as negotiations were the only way forward. They added that the role of ulema was crucial in this regard. They further said that Pakistan’s initiative of fencing the Pak-Afghan border could not fully succeed in stopping cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan and it should enhance its capacity to prevent such violence.

Senior journalist Haroon Rashid taking part in the discussion said that the issue of TTP was the basic impediment in bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “There is a deadlock on the matter, which will persist as long as both sides don’t find a solution to the problem,” he said. He underlined that Pakistan would have to work on some strategy to weaken the TTP.

Mufti Muhammad Qasim Haqqani, central leader of Jamiat Ulema- e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in Chaman (Balochistan), suggested that a delegation of local religious scholars and Pashtun leadership should meet with IEA in Kabul to discuss with them all issues between the two countries, including that of TTP militants. “Separate conferences of ulema of Pakistan and Afghanistan should be held in Kabul and Islamabad to debate and resolve issues between both the countries,” he also said.

“First of all, there is a need to understand the ideological basis of the Afghan Taliban (IEA) and the TTP,” said Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Balochistan Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi. He added that both did not accept the modern democratic system and they needed to discuss and address this issue as well.

Journalist Sami Yousafzai argued that Islamabad should not be harsh on Kabul over the issue of the presence of TTP militants in Afghanistan. He said that Pakistan must avoid giving hard-hitting statements against the IEA.