.Situation in Pakistan ‘more dire’ than Afghanistan: expert
LAHORE: A comprehensive regional strategy by the international community is urgently needed to end chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pakistani analyst and writer Ahmed Rashid stressed while addressing legislators during the 54th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly – which was held in Valencia on November 14-18.
According to the American website NewsBlaze, Rashid said, “The civilian government in Pakistan needs more international support to face problems in three major areas … There is an economic crisis – which is the result of lack of structural changes during the military rule of Perez Musharraf – a terrorist threat from militias controlling the semi-autonomous Tribal Areas near the Afghan border, and a difficult relationship between the government and the military which is refusing to move against insurgents.”
The NewsBlaze report quoted Rashid as saying that the civilian government in Islamabad was ‘very open’ to rectifying the errors of the past and convincing the Pakistani military to rein in the terrorist threat in FATA. But “unless the decision-makers in Pakistan decide to make stabilising the Afghan government a higher priority than countering the Indian threat, the insurgency conducted from bases in Pakistan will continue”.
Rashid said no multilateral framework existed to deal with the complex and entwined problems of the region. He claimed that NATO had ‘no clear Pakistan policy’, despite the fact that its troops in Afghanistan were suffering losses from the Pakistani Taliban. The UN Security Council ‘has hardly discussed Pakistan‘s role in Afghanistan’, he added.
According to Rahid, as the incoming US administration has talked about a troop surge in Afghanistan and renewed political efforts in the region, this should be elevated to a ‘high-level diplomatic initiative’ to build a genuine consensus on the achievement of Afghan stability by addressing the sources of Pakistan’s instability.
Kashmir dispute: Rashid said that this should include a settlement of the Kashmir dispute, which would allow the Pakistani military to concentrate its efforts on the border with Afghanistan.
“A first step could be the establishment of a contact group on the region authorised by the UN Security Council – including the five permanent members, NATO and Saudi Arabia – and promoting dialogue among all regional actors. Such dialogue would have to be complemented by a multi-layer international development aid package aimed particularly at the border regions.” daily times monitor
DailyTimes
According to the American website NewsBlaze, Rashid said, “The civilian government in Pakistan needs more international support to face problems in three major areas … There is an economic crisis – which is the result of lack of structural changes during the military rule of Perez Musharraf – a terrorist threat from militias controlling the semi-autonomous Tribal Areas near the Afghan border, and a difficult relationship between the government and the military which is refusing to move against insurgents.”
The NewsBlaze report quoted Rashid as saying that the civilian government in Islamabad was ‘very open’ to rectifying the errors of the past and convincing the Pakistani military to rein in the terrorist threat in FATA. But “unless the decision-makers in Pakistan decide to make stabilising the Afghan government a higher priority than countering the Indian threat, the insurgency conducted from bases in Pakistan will continue”.
Rashid said no multilateral framework existed to deal with the complex and entwined problems of the region. He claimed that NATO had ‘no clear Pakistan policy’, despite the fact that its troops in Afghanistan were suffering losses from the Pakistani Taliban. The UN Security Council ‘has hardly discussed Pakistan‘s role in Afghanistan’, he added.
According to Rahid, as the incoming US administration has talked about a troop surge in Afghanistan and renewed political efforts in the region, this should be elevated to a ‘high-level diplomatic initiative’ to build a genuine consensus on the achievement of Afghan stability by addressing the sources of Pakistan’s instability.
Kashmir dispute: Rashid said that this should include a settlement of the Kashmir dispute, which would allow the Pakistani military to concentrate its efforts on the border with Afghanistan.
“A first step could be the establishment of a contact group on the region authorised by the UN Security Council – including the five permanent members, NATO and Saudi Arabia – and promoting dialogue among all regional actors. Such dialogue would have to be complemented by a multi-layer international development aid package aimed particularly at the border regions.” daily times monitor
DailyTimes
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