Allegations from Kabul
There is a sense in certain quarters that President Karzai wants to play the role of a spoiler before stepping down.
Afghan investigators inspect a damaged car at the site of a suicide car bomb attack on the convoy of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah as residents walk near the scene in Kabul on June 6, 2014. PHOTO: AFP
Kabul has gotten to its old, familiar tricks of vitiating the feel-good atmosphere Islamabad creates with meticulous, painstaking efforts after intermittent blips in bilateral ties. Its latest allegation that Pakistan’s security agencies might be behind the recent attack on Afghan presidential candidate Dr Abdullah Abdullah’s motorcade is patently false and unfounded. Such shifting of blame to others for troubles at home has been the hallmark of Afghanistan’s ruling coterie.
Pakistan had not wasted a moment in denouncing the cowardly assault on Dr Abdullah’s election campaign convoy in the Afghan capital city, which left a dozen people dead. Tragic as the incident was, and deserving of unqualified denunciation, it nevertheless was a result of Afghan security forces’ utter failure to prevent such an occurrence. Instead of doing the much-needed soul-searching, Afghanistan’s National Security Council, headed by President Hamid Karzai, pointed an accusing finger at Pakistan’s intelligence services for orchestrating the incident ‘to disrupt the election in Afghanistan’. The charge, which was not backed up by any corroborative evidence, was rejected by Islamabad. In a befitting reply, the Foreign Office said these allegations fall in the familiar pattern of certain elements in Afghanistan sparing no occasion to malign Pakistan and its security institution.
The acrimony engendered by this fresh blame game is all the more unfortunate since Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, only last month travelled to Afghanistan to bolster two-way cooperation and review the fragile security situation in Afghanistan. During the trip, he had discussed ways of enhancing Pakistan-Afghan bilateralism with emphasis on a coordinated mechanism along the border. The visit served to create the impression that the often rocky relations between the two countries were finally on the mend. However, this fresh bitterness in ties put paid to any such rosy assessment. There is a sense in certain quarters that, with his time almost up, President Karzai wants to play the role of a spoiler before handing over charge to the soon-to-be-elected new president. We cannot rule out this proposition outright.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2014.
Pakistan had not wasted a moment in denouncing the cowardly assault on Dr Abdullah’s election campaign convoy in the Afghan capital city, which left a dozen people dead. Tragic as the incident was, and deserving of unqualified denunciation, it nevertheless was a result of Afghan security forces’ utter failure to prevent such an occurrence. Instead of doing the much-needed soul-searching, Afghanistan’s National Security Council, headed by President Hamid Karzai, pointed an accusing finger at Pakistan’s intelligence services for orchestrating the incident ‘to disrupt the election in Afghanistan’. The charge, which was not backed up by any corroborative evidence, was rejected by Islamabad. In a befitting reply, the Foreign Office said these allegations fall in the familiar pattern of certain elements in Afghanistan sparing no occasion to malign Pakistan and its security institution.
The acrimony engendered by this fresh blame game is all the more unfortunate since Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, only last month travelled to Afghanistan to bolster two-way cooperation and review the fragile security situation in Afghanistan. During the trip, he had discussed ways of enhancing Pakistan-Afghan bilateralism with emphasis on a coordinated mechanism along the border. The visit served to create the impression that the often rocky relations between the two countries were finally on the mend. However, this fresh bitterness in ties put paid to any such rosy assessment. There is a sense in certain quarters that, with his time almost up, President Karzai wants to play the role of a spoiler before handing over charge to the soon-to-be-elected new president. We cannot rule out this proposition outright.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2014.