PESHAWAR, Nov 14: Former information minister Mushahid Hussain Syed said on Wednesday that the recent developments in Afghanistan had proved that Pakistan’s Afghan policy, which it had adopted 25 years ago, was a complete failure.

He said the basic objective of that policy had been to have a friendly government in Afghanistan and every successive government had tried to pursue that policy, but, after 25 years, it had proved a total failure.

Mr Hussain made these remarks, while speaking at a meet-the-press programme at the Peshawar Press Club.

He observed that the very foundation of the country’s Afghan policy was based on a wrong assumption to have a friendly government   in Afghanistan. “The installation of a favourite government took 25 years, but all these efforts ended in smoke.”

Time and again, successive governments had changed their loyalties towards different Afghan warlords, he said, adding that the best policy towards Afghanistan was to accept every government in the war-ravaged country.

He stated that no one from outside Afghanistan, including the United States, Russia and Pakistan, had the right to impose the government of their choice on the Afghan people.

The former federal minister claimed that it was the great flow of American dollars and Saudi riyals which carried on the Afghan Jihad. “About five billion dollars came to Pakistan during the Afghan war just for military assistance”, he added.

Talking about the recent development in the region, Mr Hussain remarked that “it is the most significant event with far-reaching consequences in this region after the Islamic Revolution and former USSR invasion of Afghanistan.”

Relations among nations had rapidly changed and former foes seemed to be friends in the new emerging scenario, he said, adding that “the support of the US and Russia to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, the joint front of these two countries along with China against terrorism and similarly the establishment of US bases in Central Asia with the consent of Russia are some of the significant events of recent history.”

Besides, he said, agreeing to the US campaign objectives in Afghanistan by Iran, the United States and Iran had come close for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. He termed the development symbolic as well as significant.

He criticized the role of United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) in the present crises, saying that neither they had presented any peaceful solution to the problem nor had they vigorously condemned the civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Mr Hussain said Pakistan should not repeat the Afghan policy mistake in Kashmir. “Unlike our Afghan policy, all the Kashmiri leaders should be equally treated as friends, otherwise it would be dangerous for Pakistan.”