Release of Mullah Baradar on the cards: Sartaj Aziz

[Devil Soul]

ISLAMABAD - Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Saturday said Pakistan was prepared in principle to release more Afghan Taliban from its jails, but at the "appropriate time”. Pakistan wants to have "a good and positive relationship with Afghanistan", Aziz told The Wall Street Journal. "Our commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan remains undiminished." He said he would travel to Kabul on Sunday (today) to start repairing relations and preparing for what Islamabad hopes will be a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Aziz said his trip to Kabul would prepare the agenda for Karzai's visit to Pakistan. No date has been set for that visit. Aziz said a trade agreement was also among the pending issues. He said Pakistan was prepared in principle to release more Afghan Taliban from its jails, but at the "appropriate time", when there is some progress in the peace process. Kabul has demanded the prisoners be freed, in the belief that these detainees could help kick-start peace negotiations. In particular, Karzai wants to see freed from Pakistani custody the former Taliban deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was engaged in independent dialogue with Kabul and international representatives when he was arrested by Pakistan in 2010. Aziz said Mullah Baradar was "included in the list of who might be released" but "timing and the modalities have to be worked out". He added that 26 Taliban had been freed so far. Pakistan let the prisoners go, in batches, in late 2012, including the Taliban's former justice minister, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi. However, none of them are known to have played any role in pushing the insurgent movement toward peace talks, while some are believed to have returned to the battlefield. Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply this year, after a brief thaw at the end of 2012, when Kabul and Islamabad had pledged to work jointly for peace in Afghanistan. Kabul blames Pakistan and the US, for the botched opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar in June, seeing it as a scheme to cut the Afghan government out of peace negotiations while following Pakistan's supposed agenda of carving out the south and east of the country for the Taliban. - See more at: Release of Mullah Baradar on the cards: Sartaj Aziz | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia