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Afghan war: Who to blame?
September 11th is the deadline for the American army to leave Afghanistan and end its decades long war.
A lot of people are asking questions of why this war went on for so long and why America has lost this war. And a lot of people end up blaming Pakistan for America’s failures.
“Directorate S” is a book written by Steve Coll that explains Pakistan’s position categorically from the start of the war till the end.
From former President Musharraf till current Prime Minister Imran Khan, every Pakistani military and civilian leader has been telling the US only one thing, negotiate with the Taliban as they are local Afghans and cannot be expelled from their own country.
The book also categorically tells us how the USA always went against Pakistan’s advice, whether it was to help the Northern Alliance take over Kabul, or whether to give Pakistan time to deploy troops to the borders before the USA bombed Tora Bora mountains or even when Pakistan asked them to negotiate a peace deal with Taliban.
The book also highlights how the USA used India-funded Ahmed Shah Masood’s Northern Alliance whose second command was Amrullah Saleh, the current VP of Afghanistan who likes to spew hatred against Pakistan at every opportunity he gets.
Incidentally, Ahmad Shah Masood was killed in a suicide attack, two days before September 11th World Trade Centre incident, and he was pronounced dead in an India-funded hospital in Tajikistan.
Reading the book the readers would understand how Pakistan had always tried to help the USA and even how the Taliban continuously asked to negotiate peace with the USA, but in both cases their requests were turned down.
Therefore, at this juncture, peoples of America, Afghanistan and Pakistan should be asking themselves is: why the USA Government and CIA allowed the US Army and coalition forces to continue a war, when in the end the USA Government had to negotiate a peace settlement anyways?
SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER
Peshawar
Supply of water
Water is colourless, tasteless and shapeless. Despite all its colourless, tasteless and shapeless attributes it enriches all the colours, tastes and shapes to our life. Water is regarded as lifeline.
Not a living being can survive without water on the surface of earth. In this era of globalization where human life is furnished with all the basic needs, our Jillani Muhalla in District of Khairpur Mirs, Sindh is starving for supply of pure water.
Networking of water pipes are well scattered within the city but the supply of water is minimum to the core. Load-shedding of water supply has been the regular feature of TMO authorities.
Additionally, the water, which is supplied to our homes, is very pathetic; at times it smells very bad as it carries a lot of the impurities within.
The consumption of such pathetic water gives birth to a lot of viral diseases out of which hepatitis is most common.
This is for the information of the district management to look into the matter and get water tested from any reputed laboratory and devise a proper mechanism of pure water supply.
SUMERA SAJJAD
KHAIRPUR MIRS
The dilemma of Pakhtuns
There is no denying that Swabi district is notorious for all criminal activities across KPK. Incidents of murders and target killings frequently occur in different parts of the district.
Recently this factor has jumped an upward trend and we can witness different heinous crimes taking place without interval in the area. But, Swabi alone cannot be tipped as the sole criminal district of the province.
Other provincial districts are equally ridden with such heinous crimes. The only difference is that they are not renowned for such notorious activities. Similarly, the situation of law and order in district Buner is quite restless.
Internal strife and enmities among different sections of people have made their lives very miserable.
For instance, at Village Channar of Bunner, a violent clash between two families arose due to a misunderstanding and ended up killing two youngsters from each family. The entire village had to suffer for no reason.
The fact of the matter is that children always remain children and reunite after quarrelling, so why are we so impatiently plunged into minute disputes?
This is actually the main weakness of the Pakhtuns; they often get infuriated without weighing the pros and cons.
It has been aptly remarked by wise men that two common factors play a decisive role in the life of Pakhtun.
If they give respect to someone, they will get the same respect back but if they are disrespected by someone, they will return the disrespect with an equal or greater amount of disrespect or violence.
Hence, giving and taking are the hallmarks of Pakhtun society. In short, we should control our temper and remain steadfast in order to live a peaceful life. Let us pledge to remain united as a nation for the peace and prosperity of our country.
SHAUKAT HAYAT BUNERI
Chingli, Burner
