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February 10, 2002
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Sunday
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Ziqa’ad 26, 1422
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Opening a new chapter
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Opening a new chapter
WITH mutual pledges by their heads of state to avoid interfering in each other’s affairs, Pakistan and Afghanistan mow seem set on a new pattern of relationship. Speaking at a joint press conference in Islamabad on Friday, President Pervez Musharraf and Chairman Hamid Karzai seemed painfully aware of the consequences of past mistakes and misunderstandings when they said they had decided not to let their territories be used against each other’s interests. They made it clear that the misunderstandings of the past had been forgotten, because the two governments had decided to bury the hatchet. Instead, the aim before them now is to build a new relationship based on sovereign equality, friendship, mutual respect and cooperation.
Two points made by the chairman of Afghanistan’s interim government are significant. First, he emphasized the fact that the Afghan people were grateful to Pakistan for the help they gave them during their struggle against Soviet occupation. He specially referred to succour and shelter Pakistan provided to millions of Afghan refugees to which he said he was witness himself. Second, he believed the success of the recent war on terrorism would not have been possible without President Musharraf’s efforts and called his speech of Jan 12 “the cornerstone” of the anti-terrorism campaign in the region. These two points, based on historical facts, go to rebut some unfortunate remarks made recently by some members of the Afghan interim government. However, as both President Musharraf and Chairman Karzai said, all this belonged to the past and they treated this as a closed chapter.
While starting on a new journey of goodwill and cooperation, the two sides must, of course, be aware of the traumatic events of the last two decades and the mistakes they both made. Without a shadow of doubt, they interfered in each other’s affairs and caused problems for each other. Some Afghan governments bore animus against Pakistan, intrigued in the tribal territory, and lent support to the Pakhtoonistan bogey. Similarly, Islamabad spread its tentacles far and wide in Afghanistan and got trapped in that country’s factional fights. While it was quite legitimate for Islamabad to want a friendly government in Kabul, it made the mistake of assuming the role of Big Brother. This damaged the goodwill that Pakistan this country earned among all sections of the Afghan people during the anti-Soviet resistance. This intrusive role in Afghanistan’s internal affairs reached new heights during the post-Soviet civil war when elements in the Pakistan army armed and controlled the Taliban. The results were disastrous not only for Afghanistan but for the whole region.
One hopes the two sides will now have the wisdom of avoiding yesterday’s pitfalls and build a healthy relationship whose outlines were given by the two leaders on Friday. A thousand links bind the two coun
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