FOREIGN Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has done well by reminding Afghanistan that Pakistan was not responsible for Kabul’s internal problems and that Islamabad was blamed and made out to be a scapegoat by Afghanistan whenever its affairs didn’t appear to be moving in the right direction.
In an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, he said that the bulk of the Taliban leadership was not in Pakistan but Afghanistan and the former was only engaging with them to “facilitate the peace process” and try to be “helpful and constructive”.
There is a fundamental shift in Pakistan’s Afghan policy which is being appreciated by the international community but there are still some elements within the Afghan government that keep on pointing accusing fingers towards Pakistan just to camouflage their internal failures.
In fact, allegations about Pakistan funding the Taliban are part of the efforts to divert attention from presence of Pakistani Taliban on Afghan soil that are funded, trained and armed by anti-Pakistan forces to advance their nefarious designs of destabilizing Pakistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly taken up the issue with the Afghan leadership and also provided documentary evidence to the world community in this regard in the shape of dossiers.
Pakistan has played its part well by successfully launching war against terror but other players especially the Afghan Government is not willing to take indiscriminate action against all sorts of terrorist groups and the selective approach is harming the cause of counter-terrorism.
As foreign troops are leaving Afghanistan, it is time to discourage blame-game that vitiates the environment for dialogue that is key to durable peace in the conflict-ridden country.
The Afghan Government should respect emerging consensus on power-sharing and take firm action against elements using Afghan soil against other countries particularly Pakistan and also against rampant corruption.
