Pakistan not responsible for Afghan mess

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani has responded to the New York Times editorial saying that Pakistan cannot be held responsible for the mess in Afghanistan which is the result of the collective failure of the international community.

In a letter to the newspaper, the ambassador said, "Allegations of duplicity and double game are extremely painful especially when Pakistan has suffered the most due to war in Afghanistan. Hundreds of suicide bombings and tens of thousands of civilian casualties are the direct result of the US-led war in Afghanistan after 9/11. Instead of complaining the heavy cost imposed on us due to sustained external intervention in our neighborhood."

The ambassador maintained a firm tone and reminded that, "Pakistan has consistently cooperated with the United States and coalition forces in sharing intelligence and decimating the terror outfits operating from the region.

Since 2009, Pakistani forces have been engaged in incremental operations to clear the Pakistani soil from all the terrorist networks concentrated in this area because of the competing interests and mutual rivalries of the big powers." He said, "It is Pakistan's military which "fractured the back of Taliban" through indiscriminate counter-terrorism operations."

The rebuttal added that "Instead of putting the entire blame on Pakistan, it would have been better had the editorial also commented on the protracted Afghan refugee issue and lack of border management among the underlying reasons for regional instability. Omitting such fundamental questions that impede a long-term solution to the Afghan problem is a smack partisanship on part of the New York Times."

The newspaper had accused Pakistan of duplicity to which Jilani reacted by saying that Pakistan does not benefit from instability in Afghanistan, and wish peace and prosperity. "To this end, we are pursuing mutually beneficial economic integration through the policy of a peaceful neighborhood."

Jilani also mentioned CASA-1000 project that will connect Pakistan and Afghanistan closer. He said, "Pakistan played a completely neutral role in the Afghan elections and has offered every possible assistance to the Ghani government to find a political solution in his country."  The letter further reads: "the ongoing QCG process involving the US and China besides Pakistan and Afghanistan has rightly agreed that the long-term peace in Afghanistan can only be achieved through reconciliation between the various Afghan stakeholders.

It is imperative that this peace initiative be given a chance to succeed what the war has failed to achieve in the last fifteen years."