Pakistan removes special representative to Afghanistan: Report

Pakistan removes special representative to Afghanistan amid rising tensions

The Pakistan government has removed its special representative to Afghanistan Asif Durrani, amid heightened tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, media reports said on Saturday.

According to an official notification, Durrani was ”relieved of his responsibilities as Special Representative on Afghanistan in Management Position” on September 10, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. No official reason was given for the move. However, citing sources, the report said Durrani, who was appointed to the post in May 2023, failed to make an impact on the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship.

It also said Durrani had no acceptability in Kabul as he only had a handful of engagements with the Taliban-led interim government. Other sources said that Durrani had few tools at his disposal, given the overall strategy being followed by Pakistan. The Dawn newspaper reported the country’s powerful military was unhappy with his performance, and Durrani, too, had grown frustrated as his policy advice was regularly ignored by his principals. Durrani confirmed his departure in a text message, expressing gratitude to the leadership for allowing him to serve Pakistan, according to the report.

The post of the special envoy for Afghanistan was created in June 2020 after the US-Taliban Doha Accord. It engaged with the Taliban and other countries involved in Afghanistan. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have lately become strained, largely because of frequent attacks by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but also due to frequent border skirmishes.

There has been an uptick in the incidents of terrorism in Pakistan since the Taliban took over the government in Kabul in 2021, dashing hopes in Islamabad that a friendly government in Afghanistan would help to tackle militancy.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly accused the banned TTP of operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, a claim denied by the Afghan Taliban. Relations between the two countries have lately become strained, largely because of the TTP but also due to frequent border skirmishes.