Karzai seeks Pakistan's help with Taliban peace bid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai heads to Pakistan on Monday for his first high-level meeting with that nation's newly-elected government. He said he is looking for help to open peace talks with the Taliban to end 12 years of war before the withdrawal of 87,000 NATO troops from Afghanistan next year.

Karzai's trip to Pakistan will be his 20th, but his first visit to Islamabad in 18 months. The trip is seen as a desire by both countries to overcome distrust and hostility. 

This will be Karzai's first meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who took office in June after winning elections. Karzai praised Sharif for having "all the right intentions for stability and peace," but he conceded that previous visits had not achieved the goal of improving security in Afghanistan.

Karzai believes Taliban safe havens in Pakistan are the main cause of increased violence in his country.

"I will travel to Pakistan hoping to get a result out of it. I'm hopeful, but not sure, I will only go with hopes, and wish they materialize," he told reporters.

Afghan officials said this spring Pakistan sent hundreds of fighters from religious schools in its tribal areas to battle Afghan security forces. 

The Afghan army and police in their first year of taking the lead from North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops have taken heavy casualties, though the head of the Afghan army has said Pakistan could end the fighting in Afghanistan in weeks if it wanted. 

Karzai is likely to seek Pakistan's help to try to initiate some sort of dialogue with the Taliban, which has repeatedly refused to negotiate with his government, dismissing him as a U.S. puppet. 

Karzai was furious when the Taliban opened a liaison office -- which was billed as a precursor to talks with U.S. officials but perceived as a self-styled embassy for a government in waiting -- in Qatar in June. 

He is now traveling to Islamabad in an effort to harness Pakistan's support to find a direct channel of communication with the militants. Karzai insists that his government should take a central role in any peace talks.

"The first item with Pakistan will be the peace negotiations," he said at a news conference in Kabul on Saturday.

Waliullah Rahmani, of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that Karzai should temper his expectations for the meeting. 

"I think it is wise for President Karzai to have a lower expectation from his trip to Pakistan because if his expectations are high, and he could not meet those expectations, then frustration and freezing of relationship comes in," he said. 

Elements of the Pakistan state are widely accused of funding, controlling and sheltering the Taliban, but Islamabad says publicly it will do anything to stop the fighting in Afghanistan.

Afghan government peace negotiators, who will accompany Karzai, have called for the release of the most senior Taliban figure detained in Pakistan, former deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Pakistan released 26 Taliban prisoners late last year, including the militants' former justice minister, Nooruddin Turabi.

Afghan officials believe the releases can encourage former detainees to talk to the Kabul government, although observers say there is little evidence those hopes have been realized. Several prisoners are also understood to have returned to the battlefield.

Karzai has repeatedly said there can be no peace in Afghanistan without Pakistan. He seems optimistic the new administration in Islamabad will offer the kind of support he has sought from Pakistan for years.

"Peace and stability in Afghanistan are in Pakistan's vital interest," the Pakistani foreign ministry said Sunday.

Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse