Pakistan: Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan resigns, citing personal reasons

Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq on Wednesday resigned from his post citing personal reasons. He tweeted that after serving nearly three years as Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, I have requested the government that the time has come for him to move on and focus on his responsibilities.

Sadiq announced his resignation a week after a high-level delegation led by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif along with ISI chief Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed, and Pakistan's Charge Afghanistan Obaid Nizamani visited Kabul. He thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others for their support during his tenure as Special Representative.

He also appreciated the efforts of his colleagues who worked tirelessly to improve relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He further said I appreciate the hard work of many of my colleagues who put in long hours to make Pakistan-Afghanistan relations work.

Sadiq played an important role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table

Sadiq is a senior diplomat of Pakistan. He served as Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul from 2008 to 2014. During this, he played an important role in removing mistrust between non-Pashtun parties in Afghanistan. Sadiq comes from the Pashtun community of the Swabi region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Sadiq is believed to have played a key role in Pakistan's efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table in 2018 following a request by former US President Donald Trump.

However, he has resigned at a time when the Pakistan government is seen failing to deal with the attacks by the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Also, no solution has been found so far after talks with the interim government of the Afghan Taliban.

Terrorist incidents have increased in Pakistan after the failure of peace talks between the TTP and the Pakistan government last year. The TTP formally announced the end of the ceasefire on November 28, 2022. Since then the terror group has carried out several attacks, in which more than 170 people have been killed.

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