Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has stated that his long-standing wish has almost been fulfilled — a wish he had expressed before the Taliban’s rise to power: that if peace prevailed, he would travel across Afghanistan.
Karzai made this remark on Wednesday, December 18, at the home of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s Interior Minister, in Paktia province. According to a post on Karzai’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, he visited Haqqani’s home to offer condolences for the death of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, a senior Taliban member.
A source familiar with the visit told Tarz Press that Karzai mentioned he had never visited such a remote area before. The source quoted Karzai as saying:
“During my presidency, I never felt this at ease nor traveled to such mountainous regions. Now, my wish of saying, ‘If peace comes, I will visit such-and-such provinces,’ is almost fulfilled. Instead of going to Mazar, I first came to Gardez, Paktia. I hope next time we gather in happier circumstances.”
Karzai also recalled a moment from the past. On August 11, 2020, during a Loya Jirga (Grand Consultative Assembly) on peace in Kabul, he optimistically remarked, “If peace comes, I will not stay home even for a single day and will travel from one end of the country to the other.”
In the same assembly, then-President Ashraf Ghani had expressed a similar hope:
“If peace comes, I will return to my ancestral village and write the books I have in mind to create better opportunities for children.”
Five years after that consultative peace gathering, Hamid Karzai found himself traveling to Paktia on December 18. However, Ashraf Ghani never got such an opportunity. His government collapsed on August 15, 2021, and he fled to the United Arab Emirates on the same day.
