islamabad amid mounting domestic and international pressure the taliban have delayed the formation of the new government in warbattered afghanistan by a day the groups spokesman said on fridaythe new government according to taliban sources will be headed by the groups cofounder mullah abdul ghani baradar mullah mohammad yaqoob the son of late taliban chief mullah muhammad omar and sher mohammad abbas stanikzai taliban sources added are the two other senior taliban leaders to be appointed to senior positions mullah haibatullah akhundzada the taliban chief will focus on religious matters and governance within the framework of islamtaliban spokesman zabihullah mujahid said that the government will now be formed on saturday earlier it was claimed that the government would be announced after friday prayersas all eyes were glued to tv stations protests were held by groups of afghan women and civil society activists in kabul calling for their inclusion in the future governmentthe taliban have already stated that women will be allowed to work in government institutions but not in higherranking positionsthe protesters urged the taliban and the international community to protect the political social and economic rights of women that they had achieved in the last two decades no society will make progress without womens active role civil society activist taranum saeedi saidas women continued their rallies in kabul and other parts of the country videos posted on social media showed some taliban members in front of a government building forcing them to call off their protestall the top taliban leaders are said to be currently in kabulwhile the eu britain and the us have declared that they will deal with the taliban but wont recognise them pakistan said on friday that its approach towards the group has to be different and realisticsome have the choice of getting up and leaving but we do not we are neighbours and we have to coexist geography ties us together so our approach to the taliban has to be somewhat different and realistic pakistan foreign minister shah mehmood qureshi said at a joint news conference with british foreign secretary dominic raab who had arrived in islamabad on a twoday visit on thursdayexplaining the uks approach to the taliban raab said the approach we are taking is that we dont recognise the taliban as a government but we do see the importance of being able to engage and have a direct line of communication the reason being that there is a whole range of issues that need to be discussed including the question of safe passage of british nationals and the afghans who worked for the uk governmenton the other hand dohabased taliban spokesman suhail shaheen announced that china has promised to keep its embassy in afghanistan open and to increase humanitarian aid to the warruined country china has also issued a statement saying that it affirms its ties with afghanistan and that it wishes afghans well as they rebuild their countrymeanwhile intense fighting continues between the taliban and the resistance force in afghanistans