Afghan President Hamid Karzai will visit Pakistan on Monday seeking the release of key Taliban prisoners as he tries to restart peace talks with the militants after they collapsed acrimoniously.
Pakistan is seen as key to ending the 12-year conflict in Afghanistan before presidential elections in April and the withdrawal of 87,000 NATO-led combat troops by the end of next year.
Ties between to the two neighbours appeared to improve at a summit hosted by Britain in February, but have since frayed badly in a series of public rows that rekindled long-held mutual suspicion.
Members of the High Peace Council (HPC), the official Afghan government negotiators, will travel with Karzai and call for the release of the most senior Taliban figure detained in Pakistan, former deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.
"We will seek the release of some Taliban prisoners who are in Pakistani jails for political reasons and who are interested in peace talks, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be one of them," HPC member Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar told AFP.
Pakistan released 26 Taliban prisoners in two batches late last year, including the militants' former justice minister Nooruddin Turabi, and Afghan peace negotiators hailed the moves as a significant boost to efforts to end the war.
The search for a peace deal is an urgent priority as Afghan forces take on the fight against the insurgents with decreasing help from the international coalition.
But a Taliban office that opened in Doha in June to foster talks instead enraged Karzai as it was styled by the insurgents, who ruled Kabul from 1996-2001, as an embassy for a government-in-exile.
The resulting dispute shut down embryonic peace efforts as Karzai threatened to boycott any future negotiations with the Taliban and broke off separate security talks with the United States.
Karzai has insisted on his government taking a central role in any peace talks, despite the Taliban's refusal to open contact with him or his appointed negotiators as the rebels say he is a puppet of the United States.
"We hope the visit will bear good results in regards to peace negotiations and security of Afghanistan," Karzai said today. "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has all the right intentions for stability and peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Karzai, who has visited Islamabad regularly since he came to power after the fall of the Taliban, will be making his first trip since Sharif was elected in May.
