WASHINGTON, June 23: Pakistan has reminded the United States that Pakistani soldiers are sacrificing their lives and President Pervez Musharraf has risked his personal safety in the fight against Al Qaeda.
In a letter to the chairman of the commission investigating the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi rejected the allegation that Pakistan's support to the Taliban regime enabled Al Qaeda to establish itself in Afghanistan and plan terrorist attacks in the United States.
"It's particularly disappointing to read these allegations at a time when Pakistani soldiers are sacrificing their lives and President Musharraf had risked his personal safety in the fight against Al Qaeda, Taliban and other extremist elements," said Mr Qazi.
He said that he could claim without exaggeration that the cooperation between Pakistan and the United States broke the back of Al Qaeda and made it unlikely for the network to repeat "the awful tragedy" of Sept 11, 2001.
Mr Qazi said that Pakistan had always maintained diplomatic relations with the sitting government in Kabul, irrespective of its political and ideological inclinations, including its policies towards Pakistan.
Mr Qazi underlined that maintaining diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime did not imply Pakistan's approval or endorsement of its policies. On the contrary, he said, Pakistan had tried its best to persuade the Taliban regime to take account of international opinion and to comply with UN Security Council resolutions, including the handing over of Osama bin Laden to an appropriate tribunal to answer charges against him.
It was inaccurate to say that Pakistan in any way enabled the Taliban to harbour Osama, Mr Qazi said. He pointed out that the Taliban were simply not open to discussion on this matter.
The ambassador explained that the Taliban dependence on Osama developed with the increase in their international isolation. "That was the pragmatic reason why Pakistan did not support the isolation of the Taliban regime despite its distaste for their policies."
Mr Qazi said that Pakistan had very limited influence with the Taliban and that whatever influence it had, contrary to the allegations, was "an influence on behalf of moderation and reason, rather than extremism and violence."
He termed the allegation that "Osama Bin Laden trained fighters for Pakistan's struggle with India over Kashmir" as "inaccurate and misleading". The Kashmiris' struggle for freedom, he said, predate the arrival of Osama in Afghanistan and is rooted in the alienation of the Kashmiri people and their determination to resist military occupation and repression.
To imply that the freedom struggle in occupied Kashmir owes anything to Osama is just about as unfair as one can get, he added. Mr Qazi also strongly dispelled the notion that the government of Pakistan had in any way facilitated Osama and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
He pointed out that Pakistan, on the contrary, saw the growing influence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan as a threat to its own security and a cause for disaster in Afghanistan. In cooperation with the UN, the United States and other neighbours of Afghanistan, Pakistan sought to minimize external influences in Afghanistan and apprised the Taliban of the dangers their association with Al Qaeda spelled for Afghanistan, he said.
