PM: Need to look ahead in Afghanistan

IMRAN SAYS POINTING FINGERS WON’T HELP AND CALLS FOR AVERTING RENEWED CONFLICT

PThe underlying problem, Imran said, was an Afghan government structure lacking legitimacy in the eyes of the average Afghan.

rime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan must not be blamed for the outcome of the war in Afghanistan and for the losses of the United States and stressed on setting eyes on the future to avoid another conflict rather than continuing with the blame game.

“Today, with Afghanistan at another crossroads, we must look to the future to prevent another violent conflict in that country rather than perpetuating the blame game of the past,” he said in his article published in the Washington Post yesterday.

Surely, Pakistan was not to blame for the fact that “300,000plus well-trained and equipped Afghan security forces saw no reason to fight the lightly-armed Taliban,” Imran reasoned. The underlying problem, he said, was an Afghan government structure lacking legitimacy in the eyes of the average Afghan. He also expressed “surprise” over the recent Congressional hearings on Afghanistan, where “no mention was made of Pakistan’s sacrifices as a US ally in the war on terror for over two decades”.

Error of judgment

“Instead, we were blamed for America’s loss,” he added.

Imran said that, unfortunately, the successive Pakistani governments after 9/11 sought to please the US instead of pointing out the error of a military-dominated approach. “Desperate for global relevance and domestic legitimacy, Pakistan’s military dictator Pervez Musharraf agreed to every American demand for military support after 9/11. This cost Pakistan, and the US, dearly,” he said.

The militant groups declared war against the Pakistani state after its support to the US war on terror, he said. “The die was cast,” he said.

“Between 2006 and 2015, nearly 50 militant groups declared jihad on the Pakistani state, conducting over 16,000 terrorist attacks on us,” he said.

He mentioned that Pakistan suffered over 80,000 casualties and lost over $150 billion in the economy, besides driving 3.5 million citizens from their homes. He said the militants escaping from Pakistani counterterrorism efforts entered Afghanistan and were then supported and financed by Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies.

“Pakistan had to fight for its survival,” he stressed and quoted in this regard a former CIA station chief in Kabul who in 2009 wrote that the country was “beginning to crack under the relentless pressure directly exerted by the US”. Yet the US continued to ask us to “do more” for the war in Afghanistan, he added.