Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s anguish about the aggressive role Pakistan continues to play in Afghanistan is palpable. He has been provoked to directly address the Pakistani media in an interview in which he asked Islamabad to give up trying to foist the Taliban on Kabul and interfering in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs. He had made it clear last April in his State of the Nation Address that Kabul seeks friendly ties with its neighbours and expects them to keep out of Afghanistan’s internal affairs. That message was meant, undoubtedly, for Pakistan. It is obvious that Pakistan, instead of moving toward good neighbourly policies, is under the grip of an ambitious expansionism for the sake of gaining "strategic depth". The Afghan leadership, which had showed great friendship toward Islamabad last year, is already disillusioned by the perpetuation of the ISI-dominated mindset and strategies that have been at the root of the tragedies that have visited Afghanistan for over 20 years. Two issues need specific attention. First, the Taliban’s continuing sway in the area. Even the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, reportedly observed last week that Pakistan must provide "100 per cent" assurance that the Taliban would not be allowed to use Pakistani territory to regroup and destabilise Afghanistan, as they seem to be planning in Quetta. It is possible that General Musharraf, after being wined and dined at Camp David and granted aid worth $3 billion, may have strengthened perceptions within the Army-ISI that they can do what they please since the US, now bogged down in Iraq, badly needs them in the war against terrorism. The second is the growing belief among Afghan leaders that General Musharraf has "Indianised" Pakistan’s relationship with Kabul. This is nothing new, although the Karzai government had hoped this would not happen in view of the close contacts that existed between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past. Unfortunately, the Pakistani elite has a strong tendency to perceive Afghanistan through the lenses of the Pak-India stand-off. At the same time, its tends to shape its policy on the basis of a zero-sum approach. This has been at the root of a great deal of flawed assumptions and policies on Pakistan’s part. Karzai has candidly thrown a challenge to Pakistan to try and help Afghans like India is doing — to build schools, hospitals and infrastructure in a devastated country. He still wants to develop friendly relations with Pakistan, and expand the role of Pakistani workers in Afghanistan. The people of this region hope that Islamabad will listen carefully to what he has to say and act responsibly.
