WASHINGTON, Dec 4: Pakistan needs to abandon the search for ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan and instead focus on the economic revival of the South Asian region, writes Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria.

In an article published in the Washington Post on Monday, the eminent Indian journalist tells the Bush administration that ‘an Afghan strategy’ alone cannot prevent the country from becoming another Iraq. The United States needs “a Pakistan strategy” to stabilise Afghanistan.

Mr Zakaria claims that top Pakistani military officers have believed that they need to have some sway over events in Afghanistan to create a strategic depth for Pakistan.

This mechanistic view, he argues, comes out of the cold war, when India and Afghanistan tilted toward the Soviet Union, and has gained ground as India and Afghanistan have both become pro-America.

“There are even those in Islamabad who believe that to counter these trends, Pakistan should help drive western forces out of Afghanistan — even establish a pro-Pakistan, Taliban government in Kabul.”

This attitude explains Islamabad's ‘constant refrain’ that the Taliban must be rehabilitated within the Afghan political system, says Mr Zakaria.

Quoting unnamed informed sources in the Bush administration, he reports that at the dinner that President Bush threw for Afghan and Pakistani leaders in September, President Karzai warned President Musharraf that if the United States was forced to leave Afghanistan, Kabul would ally far more closely with India and Russia, which would not be in Pakistan's interests.

He also urged President Musharraf to recognise that in supporting the Taliban and its doctrine of ethnic Pashtun nationalism, he was creating a problem for himself since there are millions of dissatisfied Pashtuns within Pakistan.

Mr Zakaria then urges Washington to push President Musharraf to recognise that what Pakistan needs right now is not strategic depth but stability.

“Its economy is on a roll thanks to a strong reform programme established and overseen by its savvy prime minister, Shaukat Aziz,” he writes. “With India and Pakistan growing at 8 per cent a year, the sub-continent could move into a win-win world in which peace and prosperity reinforce each other in an upward spiral of success.

“South Asia could then look a whole lot more like Southeast Asia, a region where economic growth has alleviated historical tensions and border disputes.”