Politics
Former Afghan prime minister and leader of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has criticized the Taliban government,
Former Afghan prime minister and leader of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has criticized the Taliban government, saying that political change in Afghanistan is inevitable and approaching soon. According to Afghan media outlet Afghanistan International, Hekmatyar made the remarks while addressing his supporters online. He said power should be handed over to the Afghan people, who should have the right to decide the country’s future political system and government through their elected representatives.
Hekmatyar said decisions concerning domestic and foreign policy, the national budget, war and peace should be made through elected institutions. He stressed that the will of the people must form the foundation of any future political system. He added that the Taliban would have to choose between war and peace. Just as governments established with the support of the Soviet Union and the United States failed to remain in power for long, he argued, the Taliban government would also be unable to survive indefinitely.
Hekmatyar further said that the Taliban government was politically isolated and, contrary to its claims, lacked genuine and lasting allies in the region and around the world. He said countries that had previously supported the Taliban were no longer fully aligned with the group, and no country was offering it unconditional support.
According to Hekmatyar, Tehran and New Delhi had also shaped their relations with the Taliban according to their own interests and priorities, rather than on the basis of a strategic alliance. The Hezb-e-Islami leader said the Taliban faced serious difficulties in gaining international legitimacy and had failed to establish a stable position for themselves within the regional and global order.
Addressing the Afghan Taliban, Hekmatyar said that if they claimed there was no place in Afghanistan for their opponents, they should apply the same principle to themselves and accept that they, too, should have no place in the country. He added that under Taliban rule, the Afghan people continued to face serious challenges, including unemployment, insecurity and poverty.
