ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: Pakistan on Monday warned that any attempt to foist a single dispensation or entity on Kabul would again plunge Afghanistan into “civil war and war-lordism”.

Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Khan said this at a press briefing in reply to a question why Pakistan was opposed to the Northern Alliance which was making a bid to seize control of Kabul under the cover of the military operation launched by the Western coalition against terrorism.

He denied Pakistan was opposed to any specific entity or entities in Afghanistan but emphasized that it was evident that any attempt to control Kabul (to the exclusion of all other groups) had led to interminable civil war and bloodshed in the recent past.

Stressing the need for accelerating political process to find a durable and final settlement in Afghanistan, the spokesman said that the control of Kabul should be with an entity which is acceptable to all. This dispensation, he added, should be representative, multi-ethnic, reflective of demographic realities and it should come in place through indigenous political process without outside interference and be acceptable to all Afghans.

In reply to a question, the spokesman said: “We still hope that a political process, once it gets on the ground, will be able to come up with a dispensation in Afghanistan acceptable to its people, which would retain unity and integrity of Afghanistan”. However, he warned, if that did not happen it would lead to the repetition of civil war and war-lordism, and hoped that the Afghan leaders who had suffered heavily in the past, would recognize it.

The spokesman said that in the evolving military situation, one should not become pessimistic about a political solution and added that (in the absence of an imminent agreement) the best alternative would be a “demilitarized Kabul” with no group seizing its control.

He acknowledged that “mistakes” had been committed in the past in dealing with the Afghanistan situation but urged that efforts should now be aimed at drawing correct lessons from the past and avoid further bloodshed and civil strife.

He said the international community had appreciated Pakistan’s decision to join the US-led coalition against terrorism. On the economic front, the spokesman referred to the US offer of $1 billion to Pakistan and said that more about the offer would be known after the return of the president’s delegation.