Hekmatyar Likely to Sign Peace Deal With Ghani: HPC

After months of backdoor negotiations between government and Hizb-e-Islami, hopes have been raised over a final peace treaty agreement with the insurgent movement.
On Friday, an official from the High Peace Council (HPC) reported that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could attend talks in Kabul with President Ashraf Ghani next week, where he might sign a peace agreement.
Sources at the HPC said on condition of anonymity, if a peace deal is struck, Hekmatyar has asked government to release all party's inmates currently in Afghan prisons. He has also reportedly asked for Hizb-e-Islami and its top officials to be removed from the international blacklist.
Reports however surfaced that the two sides have reached a consensus on 23 items out of 25, making them closer to sealing a final agreement.
Sources however told TOLOnews that the three remaining items include the complete release of Hizb-e-Islami prisoners, the removal of Hizb-e-Islami and its officials' names from the international blacklist and lifting of international sanctions against the party.
"His excellency Engineer Gulbuddin Hekmatyar the leader of Hizb-e-Islami is set to arrive in Kabul where he will sign a peace deal with the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and his Excellency Gilani (head of the HPC)," HPC member Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar said.
Hizb-e-Islami delegations claim that currently Hekmatyar lives in an unknown location in Afghanistan. Qasimyar said they cannot disclose the location until his meeting with Afghan officials is confirmed.
When asked about progress over deadlocked talks with the Taliban, Qasimyar said that efforts are ongoing to get the process back on track and convince the resurgent movement to endorse the peace talks.
In reference to a recent visit by a three-member Taliban delegation from Qatar office, Qasimyar said that in their meeting with the Afghan government delegation, the Taliban officials indicated the Taliban's leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was considering peace talks with the Afghan government.
Meanwhile, a number of Afghan lawmakers have said that Hekmatyar's possible agreement with the government would be a step forward, but say that the government and the HPC, by announcing Hekmatyar's arrival in Kabul for peace, want to cover up their failure in getting the Taliban to the talks table.
"As we know both candidates President Ashraf Ghani and [CEO Abduallh] Abdullah, during their election campaigns, had pledged that they will seriously tackle the issues of corruption, joblessness and restoration of peace and security in the country, but they failed to deliver on the promises, therefore they are trying to make gains for themselves in the peace sphere," MP Saifullah Muslim said.
"What has the high peace council done for the people? They must be held accountable for their foreign trips and useless meetings; they must be asked what they have spent all the money on," Muslim said.
"If the government reaches an agreement with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the U.S and other countries will not have a problem with removing their name from the blacklist. I am sure that the Afghan government and the United States have already talked about it," political analyst Mohammad Asif Baktash said.
This latest development takes place just weeks after the Taliban, the main insurgent group fighting Afghan forces, flatly refused to join the peace process unless a list of pre-conditions were met.