Pakistan
snubs Karzai, declines visit offer
MIAN ABRAR
In an unprecedented diplomatic snub,
Islamabad has rebuffed an offer made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit
Pakistan to discuss a joint strategy for action against terrorist outfit
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups who have sought shelter in
Afghan areas following the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan
Agency (NWA). Pakistan Today has learnt that Karzai made the offer in a meeting
with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Special Envoy Mehmood Khan Achakzai and
Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudry who met the Afghan president last week to
formally convey Pakistan’s request for Afghan cooperation in the ongoing
military offensive.
President Karzai called Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif and offered complete cooperation from his side, adding that he
would visit Pakistan to finalise matters. According to an official source privy
to the developments, Pakistan told the Afghan president to send a
representative delegation instead. Following Pakistan’s refusal to host the
Afghan president, Afghanistan’s top security adviser Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta
arrived in Islamabad earlier this week for talks with the Pakistani leadership.
According to the source, Karzai, who has been involved in power seeking schemes
and serious blame-games since past many years, is facing international
diplomatic isolation these days. “Karzai is facing diplomatic isolation as the
US and UK governments are not pleased with him following his refusal to sign a
bilateral security agreement with the US. Now, he wants to make Islamabad
convince the US and British governments to secure a future role for himself,”
said a well-placed diplomatic source. The source added that in the midst of a
power transition in war-torn Afghanistan, Karzai is also being accused of
engineering a massive vote fraud. “However, just to catch media attention, the
Afghan president is busy levelling baseless accusations against Pakistan over
border violations,” the source said, adding that Karzai wanted to visit
Islamabad in order to gain political mileage.
MASSIVE
VOTE FRAUD:
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah
Abdullah, who gained a lead in the first phase of the presidential elections,
has accused Karzai of engineering a massive vote-fraud in favour of his
opponent, Dr Ashraf Ghani. Abdullah had questioned the figures of the
Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC). The election complaints
body said it had received more than 560 complaints of fraud so far. Talking to Pakistan Today, a high-ranking
diplomat of the British High Commission based in Islamabad said, “We are also
receiving reports which suggest that Karzai is engineering this vote fraud to
remain in power.” The diplomat said that the reports suggest that the vote
fraud is aimed at triggering ethnic divisions in the war-torn Afghanistan. “A
dispute between Ghani and Abdullah may trigger an ethnic conflict in
Afghanistan which may draw a militant row between Pashtun and non-Pashtun
factions. Any such controversy may provide an opportunity to Karzai to remain
in power for an indefinite period,” the source said. According to sources, the voting turnout in
the first phase was around five million which swelled to seven million in the
second phase, raising serious questions on the authenticity of the electoral
process. Normally, the voter turnout in
the first phase is more than the second phase and the resignation of an Afghan
IEC top official has further complicated the matter, “which looks like a
scripted one”, the source said.
BORDER
CONFLICTS:
Sources
have revealed that Karzai is also trying to engineer border conflicts with
Pakistan by creating the false impression that Pakistani soldiers in civvies
are conducting operations inside Afghanistan.
“If Pakistani forces had intruded into Afghanistan, they would have
arrested some of the top TTP commanders who have taken refuge in Afghanistan,
soon after the NWA operation was launched,” said the source. “Most of the TTP terrorists are being hosted
by the Afghan government and the Afghan authorities are not cooperating with
Pakistan for their repatriation,” the source said. Karzai has been in power for
over 13 years and is well connected with influential warlords, local and
foreign militants, foreign spy agencies, including CIA, RAW and MI6. The source added that Karzai has been assured
by both the presidential candidates that he would be appointed as adviser in
the next Afghan government.
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