Given the Karzai government's periodic fits against Pakistan, Kabul has once again accused Islamabad of wrecking the Afghan peace process. It says Pakistan's "complacency" in the Afghan peace process would force it go alone in the Afghan peace process. By him President Karzai might have been terse albeit short in hurling the charge, but not his deputy foreign minister, Jawed Ludin, who is quite elaborate in an interview, and aptly depicts yet another somersault on the part of the Afghan regime. And to underscore its importance the Kabul government also announced that it would not be sending an 11-member military team which was scheduled to arrive at the Quetta Staff College last week.
The charge, however, is not entirely unexpected now that President Karzai is looking for scapegoats for his abysmal failure to bring Afghanistan out of its troubles despite having enjoyed decade-long support of the coalition governments. As usual with him it is always the Pakistan government and its intelligence agencies that are there to be tagged the blame. "We here in Kabul in a bit of state of shock ... confronted by the depth of Pakistan's complacency ... We see Pakistan is changing the milepost every time we reached understanding," says Jawed Ludin. His grudge is that Pakistan is trying to sideline President Karzai by, in his words, insisting that the Afghan Taliban should talk to other parties.
That's not true and is patently contrary to Pakistan's stated policy of working for any all-Afghan peace process. Had there been Islamabad's Taliban-specific approach it would not have encouraged a heightened role for the Rabbani-led High Peace Council or the release of Afghan prisoners from Pakistani jails. Deputy Foreign Minister Ludin may well be trying to put in place a potent challenge to the Afghan Taliban now that Kabul has taken control of the Bagram prison. And in that direction there is also a clear hint in his interview. The Karzai government, he says, 'would now turn to some of the most senior, hardcore Taliban leaders behind bars in Bagram in its quest for peace'. As far as Afghanistan's policymaking in relation to its overtures towards any player among Taliban is concerned, it does not bother Pakistan the least. Pakistan's sole interest is that as the coalition forces prepare to leave, the expected vacuum of power is filled up by the Afghans and none else. A peaceful Afghanistan is in Pakistan's supreme interest, and in that it is always ready to play its role. That Kabul will not send its military officers on training mission because of a border incident is nothing more than a pretext to muddy the waters. Such border clashes not unusual and should not be exclusively of Afghan interest. Pakistan too continues to be a victim of cross-border violations, particularly by the Kunar-based Swati Taliban who of late seem to be working to disrupt election process in the adjoining areas of Pakistan.
In fact what ails the Karzai-headed Kabul regime is not Pakistan's 'complacency' over the slow pace of Afghan reconciliation; it's the concern about its own future, both as contender to power in Kabul and its fear of being alienated by the international community. Thanks to rampant corruption, ethnicity-driven policies and unbridled desire to hold on to power the Karzai regime has forfeited its democratic credentials. No surprise that as poverty and deprivation rule the broad expanse of Afghanistan there are glittering islands of opulence in Kabul, and the residents are no others than members of the ruling elite and its cronies for whom the coalition-funded war has been an unending bonanza. Obviously now that it is losing the trust of its erstwhile benefactors it is left with no other option but to blame others for its failures. And that's clearly reflected from Jawed Ludin's diatribe against Pakistan. Last month President Karzai was blaming the United States. If the Afghan Taliban do not want to sit with Karzai at the negotiating table it is essentially his problem and of his own making.
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