Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly said that Afghanistan must share power with Taliban and block Indian influence on its soil if it wants to establish peace in the country.
According to the Dawn, Musharraf hailed President Ashraf Ghani's September inauguration as a new opportunity for reconciliation between the government and Taliban and related insurgent groups.
He said, "Ashraf Ghani is a balanced man" and added, "I think he's a great hope." However, he also warned that Pakistan and India should avoid engaging in a proxy war.
Musharraf also claimed that India and Pakistan were engaged in a long-running proxy war on Afghan soil that fuelled the conflict. He defended his and Islamabad's role in nurturing the Taliban and allied militant groups in Afghanistan by saying that they were a "legitimate counterweight" against its rival India there.
He argued that India had provided arms, training and equipment to ethnic Baloch separatists inside Afghanistan and complained that the United States and its allies had failed to consider Pakistan's concerns, compelling Islamabad to use militant groups inside Afghanistan to prop up its interests.
The report said that given Musharraf's close links to defence and intelligence officials, his remarks provided a glimpse of the official Pakistani thinking on the peace process, a policy that is often obscured by diplomatic language.
His remarks came as Ghani's administration raised hopes that Afghani officials will be able to begin peace talks with Afghan Taliban in the coming weeks.