Ghani setting up 8-member council that will include Taliban: Hekmatyar

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami party, says that President Ashraf Ghani along with a number of politicians has agreed to form an eight-member “decision-making” council.

In an exclusive interview with Ariana News, Hekmatyar stated that the council would make the final decisions on national issues in Afghanistan.

Ghani, former President Hamid Karzai, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Jamiat-e-Islami leader Salahuddin Rabbani, Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, Hizb-e-Wahdat Islami leader and the president’s advisor Mohammad Mohaqiq, former Vice President Karim Khalili, and an as yet unnamed member of the Taliban will be on the council.

“The High Council of Government should be formed alongside the government. And limited figures and influential party leaders or let me say influential laterals must be part of it,” Hekmatyar said.

This comes as Ghani reportedly had meetings with prominent Afghan figures over the past few days – meetings aimed at building consensus over establishing the council.

Hekmatyar, meanwhile, stated that the current government would be replaced with another government “which would be accepted by all parties.”

He also claimed that the controversial issue around the 7,000 Taliban prisoners would be resolved. He said they would be released and the US would also remove the names of the group’s leaders from blacklists.

“Foreign forces will withdraw from Afghanistan. The current government will be replaced by a government that is acceptable to all. The High Council of Government would be formed with Taliban participation. Their prisoners would be released and names of their leaders would also be removed from US blacklists,” he said.