KABUL/ PESHAWAR: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday urged Pakistan not to forge its policy on Afghanistan based on its rivalries with either India or the United States.
"We want Pakistan to have an independent policy towards Afghanistan. It should not look at Afghanistan based on its relations with India and America. Pakistan should approach us as its neighbour," Karzai told local television.
Fearful of encirclement by its wealthier neighbour, Pakistan has been accused of trying to gain strategic ground over its arch rival India by supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, relations between Pakistan and the US, which is fighting a 10-year war against the Taliban insurgency, have fallen to a new low following the November 26 NATO airstrike which killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border.
Karzai said he was trying not to involve his country in regional rivalries, so that when NATO-led foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014, Afghanistan can become a successful centre for international business.
"We are trying to turn Afghanistan into a country where in the years between 2014 and 2024 it won't be a scene of negative rivalries and clashes," he said.
"Instead it will be a place for cooperation, business and economy, and a main transition route between central, south and east Asia."
He said the next president, who will take office after elections in three years time, should be "sincere, patriotic, efficient and a person trusted by all the people of Afghanistan".
Karzai, whose second and final term in office will end in 2014, said he would support such a candidate, and has previously vowed not to seek a third term.
In October, Karzai sought to reassure Pakistan after signing a new strategic partnership with India, which aimed to boost trade and cultural links, but also saw promises of a greater Indian role in training Afghan security forces.
Indian involvement in Afghanistan is extremely sensitive because of the delicate and often deadly power games in South Asia, with Pakistan vehemently opposed to its arch-foe meddling in what it considers its backyard.
Pakistan wants a peaceful Afghanistan
The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has said that establishment of peace in Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was difficult unless peace was restored in Afghanistan.
He was talking to media men after distributing prizes among the successful players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Punjab Inter-Provincial schools and Colleges Games.
He said that all stakeholders of the region must sort out a collective workable plan for restoration of peace in the region adding territory of one country must not be used against another country.
COMMENTS (40)
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Karzai has to make up his mind, whose side he's on. A slave can't serve two masters, who hate each other!
@antanu: That's the problem with you paki folks (with an inflated ego)..Stoping the ridicule should work both ways..nobody (both sides) is saint here...Why on earth we should spend our valuable time in convincing you folks..Trust building should be mutual..There is no free lunch bro..BTW, what will convince you..like saying Kasab is an indian and we'll give you up on Kashmir etc..it takes two hands to tango and that's the way the world works...Even giving MFN status (in principle) took you 16 years after India granted it...Who is thinking Chinese as brothers and Indians as perennial foes..Honestly, new generation Indians have no time for these crap...
@Ejaz: Gr8 my dear friend we should spread love and respect for each other rather then hatered. World dosn't want to see us together that's why every one is provoking us against each other. Understand each other problems and by no means we should make mockery of each other's country. gr8 to see lovely responses from many friends. Please keep this feelings alive so that one day we become two gr8 neighbours without boundries like europe. Inshah allah.. This i learnt this from my paki friend who always end his sentence with INSHAH ALLAH.. Initially it used to confuse me whether he is saying yes or no but later i realised that it means "yes" with permission from god.
@Gautam: A very valid point Gautham. I live abroad and helped an Indian fellow (housing, taxation etc) and then he became my friend. He is originally from Ahmadabad India. I didn't have any problem with him and vice versa though I am being British Kashmiri Muslim and him being Indian Hindu. This chap used to visit my home and used to say "you kashmiri/punjabi make lovely meals". I used to visit his house and ate lovely Gujrati vegetarian meals. This chap is moved back to India but keeps in touch with me via email.
@Gautam
Well said brother! If only our policy makers could see the bigger picture we can outside our borders.
Karzai should read NATO attack reports formulated by USA asap! It points all fingers towards afghan national army instigating an attack on Pakistan on directions of RAW!
@Gautam: So true, love your ideas
@Malatesh: "Afghanistan should fence its border with Pakistan for its better security. "
Spot on dude!!! Lets fence Pak-Afgan border all along the way for its better security...
Lets raise our voices for fencing the borders!!!! wat you guys say???
@Abdur Rehman what is your point? every country has refugee problem, India also has refugees from Bangladesh and Nepal. Are you blaming India for Afghan refugees in Pakistan?
@Gul Akbar: And where are millions of Afghan refugees, inindia ? try to be honest, they're in pakistan too, aren't they? Don't make a hole in the boat where you're sitting.
Please clean up Afghanistan from the Indian spy network that uses Afghan soil for terrorist acts toward Pakistan and then Pakistan can ignore India. Afghanistan and India are the main cause of terrorism and bloodshed in Pakistan. And India and Afghanistan should stop their deception against Pakistan and America.
Pakistan should at least acknowledge the fact that they loved it when they were able to puppeteer Afghanistan. And only when someone bigger showed up Pakistanis feel oh so tender about it. I feel sorry to see so many bruised egos and broken hearts here.
try to be honest what u are saying about your neighbor, where was Bin Ladin?
Afghanistan should ignore Pakistan and increase trade links with India, US, China.. Afghanistan should fence its border with Pakistan for its better security.
In past USSR tried to bisected Afghanistan to reach hot waters, so how Pakistan of today could wish to happen in the name of trade. The neighbor of today should try to understand each others before they make such offers. What about Iran-Afghan trade, I never heard about that. In fact every leader in this region has bigger ideas, little wish.
Karzai speaks with a forked tongue. He should never to be trusted. Pakistan needs to develop its Afgans policy independently. But alas,..........!!
That's about as reasonable as us asking him to ignore the Taliban in forming his security policy.
What makes him so sure that he will not meet the fate of Najibullah?
Mayor of Kabul and his orders from Unocoal masters. I don't know why the world takes him as leader of Afghanistan.
@Syed Kashmiri:
Agree, One must not see Pak-Afghan relationship solely in post-Soviet or post 9/11 era, but throughout the period of 1947-1979 too. Afghans called Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah a British agent and refused to accept the Durand Line...plus they called and a number of them still call Pakistan an illegal country that occupies Pashtun dominated areas from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through Balochistan. In such a scneario, it's natural to feel worry about your own existence. Yeah,but we must also stop looking at Pak-Afghan or Indo-Pak relationship through the prism of religion. Education,open discussions,tolerance and rational thinking can help youth of the three nations of Afghanistan,Pakistan and India. Let's move on from historical differences and see how things unfold for all of us.
@Such: Right on the spot brother!
and Pakistan urges Karzai to get another land route to big water for your land lock great country.
Maybe Karzai should ignore India while formulating his foreign policy?
And yet we Pakistanis continue deluding ourselves that everyone is out to get us. Pakistan needs to give up "strategic depth" once in for all. The rest of the find finds it hilarious that Pakistan accuses others of using this policy against it when in reality Pakistan has used it against Afghanistan and India for decades.
Can we just stop the charade and be honest with ourselves for once?
Just this past week there were probably 20 articles on how pakis have not learned from 1971. In 1971 pakis portrayed all Bengali agitation as India sponsored.
The pak comments here are blaming India for internal problems inside pakistan.
In other words pakis are doing EXACTLY what they did in 1971.
He is undoubtedly the biggest crook of the century. Leaves our leaders miles behind. Karzai should go back to Chicago and run his restaurant. And he should also take all the Afghan refugees from Pakistan with him. Let the US take care of them.
When America cant sleep well because a country which is thousands of miles away from their country is a threat against their national interest, then how can they expect us to keep quiet and ignore what's going on in our neighborhood?
yeah how about you stop allowing your soil to be used against Pakistan by the indians?
Pakistan should not forget that it was only during the four years of Taliban regime that they had no problems with Afghanistan. Otherwise Pakistan and Afghanistan had bad relations all thru Pakistan's existence. And Afghanistan was the only country which voted against the UN membership of Pakistan. So if Pakistan wants peace with Afghanistan it must support the next to be formed Taliban Govt. After all US with a short attention span and with a bad economy at home will not be wasting economic and security aid to Karzai regime. US will be leaving Afghanistan as it left Iraq. And the it is between Taliban plus Pakistan versus the current pro-India regime.
It's a CIA conspiracy to make Pakistan lose it's proxies; and no sarcasm intended.
Did you ignore India and the USA when your government was forming its foreign policy. I forgot you dont have a foreign policy and what little foreign policy you have has been crafted by these two countries. Its okay it will change with time. Just give it till 2014
Maybe if Afghanistan were not a puppet state of India, Karzai's words would mean something. Let's forget about trade with Afghanistan and just fence the border with them. We have suffered enough because of the nightmare neighbour that is Afghanistan. It's time to send all Afghani refugees home and to close the border to stop all movement of people. When the West leaves, the region will be back to chaos there in Afghanistan, so mow is the time for Pakistan to be proactive and stop movement of Afghanis.
Did you ignore US and Pakistan while you formed your governments foreign policy?
Mr Karzai, how can we ignore India when India is using your country as a base for creating problems in Pakistan's western provinces.
Pak will ignore india, if india stops terrorism in Pakistan