Double game charges repeated

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Canada’s former envoy to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander, is the latest official to join the ranks of those who have criticised Pakistan for allegedly playing a double game in Afghanistan. Islamabad has vehemently denied the allegation.

In an opinion piece written for The Globe and Mail, the former ambassador called the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) the “main driver of the conflict” in Afghanistan.

Though Alexander termed most of the material recently leaked by website Wikileaks a “caricature,” of the actual scenario in Afghanistan, he said the implication that the ISI was aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan was a “genuine insight.”

Following the publication of over 90,000 classified US military documents detailing intelligence gathering in Afghanistan, various world leaders have harshly criticised Pakistan and the ISI of supporting the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister David Cameron both made statements alleging that Pakistan was complicit in spreading violence in Afghanistan to achieve its own ends. Former ambassador Alexander alleged that Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Kayani wants to “call the shots in Kabul. To do so, he is prepared to support the principal outfit launching suicide attacks in Afghanistan cities. He is backing the [Taliban’s] effort to wreck an Afghan-led nation-building process”.

Alexander added that the Pakistan Army’s mission in Afghanistan is to keep Pashtun nationalism down, India out and Karzai weak.

The former ambassador supported his claims by alleging that Kayani had resisted US pressure to launch operations in North Waziristan and Balochistan where the Taliban were based. He also alleged that Kayani told Afghan President Karzai this spring that the condition for peace in Afghanistan is the closure of several Indian consulates in the country.

Alexander said the material published by Wikileaks “demonstrates [the Army’s] heavy handed involvement at all levels”. He went on to say that: “So long as this unholy alliance continues, Afghans will continue to succumb to the mistaken view that the US and its allies are deliberately turning a blind eye to Taliban resurgence, despite our sacrifices to date.” Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied the allegations being levelled against the army and the ISI.