Pakistan has strongly criticised India — the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) president for the month of August — for denying Pakistan an opportunity to address the council as a neighbouring country with a direct stake in peace in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Munir Akram told a press conference that Islamabad played a key role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, which is why Pakistan had requested to attend the Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s UN envoy also strongly deplored allegations made by the Afghan and Indian diplomats that terrorists use Pakistan’s territory as a safe haven. He said that the country’s border with Afghanistan had been fenced and there was no free flow of people. Speakers who hurled insults and accusations against Pakistan at the meeting were given full leeway and India-Afghan harmony was seen to be fully driven.
There has been a concerted effort in recent months to malign Pakistan through fake news, and members of the Afghan government and media have fabricated rumours and developments out of thin air.
Be it the claim that 10,000 jihadis from Pakistan had infiltrated Afghanistan, or the fake news about Pakistani security forces preventing the ANSF from conducting air strikes close to the border, these preposterous allegations are part of an effort to poison bilateral ties between the two neighbours. The plain truth is that the Ashraf Ghani’s administration is unable to cope with the onslaught on the battlefield, and it has now resigned itself to blaming external forces for its failures.
The desperation is now palpable as President Ghani blamed the US for a hasty pullout which caused violence to worsen in Afghanistan. While it is true that the US should have planned the withdrawal more responsibly, this claim from Kabul is insincere considering how there is no self-reflection of where the Afghan government has faltered during the peace process.
Meanwhile, the Taliban, who captured the Afghan district of Spin Boldak recently, closed the border with Pakistan at Chaman, suspending traffic as well as trade between the two countries. Pakistani officials too had closed the border crossing from their side.
Pakistan has paid a heavy price for the tension in Afghanistan and has acted as a bridge between the US and the Taliban for peace, but the incompetence of the Afghan government has once again set the region on fire. The Afghan government’s failure to negotiate with the Taliban and establish peace cannot be blamed on Pakistan.
If the Afghan government really wants peace, then abandon the politics of blame and hypocrisy and come to the negotiating table with good faith and instead of blaming Pakistan unnecessarily, Islamabad’s role in establishing peace should be heartily acknowledged.
