PESHAWAR, Nov 26: All efforts to strengthen government in Afghanistan will prove useless unless Kabul recruits its regular army, former Afghan military officials say.

“The country will suffer even after the formation of a broad-based government because being politically divided, it lacks national integrity,” commented Syed Saqib Agha, a retired general of the disbanded Afghan army.

He suggested that the United Nations and allied forces should provide logistic and technical assistance to the war-torn country in this regard.

Mr Agha claimed that till the fall of the last communist regime of Dr Najeebullah, Afghanistan had well-trained and equipped army in the region. But after Najeebullah, warlord culture had entered Afghanistan, he added.

In the current situation, he said, Kabul had two options: either to build its own national army or declare Afghanistan a neutral state.

Agha said: “Like its neighbouring countries, Afghanistan has the right to raise its army to meet external and internal challenges.”

Bahadur Sharifi, another former general of the Afghan army, said that at present, Afghanistan was confronted with only internal threats.

“Without the involvement of the UN and allied forces a warlord culture, which has resurfaced after the fall of the Taliban government, can’t be eradicated from Afghanistan,” he argued.

Gen Syed Wali, a retired official of the Afghan interior ministry, proposed that the broad-based setup should constitute a powerful administrative body to start recruitment for the national army. Opposing the induction of former Jihadi commanders and some warlords in the armed forces, he said it would plunge the nation into further crisis.