Former Pakistani PM urges Pakistan neutrality on Afghanistan

Sharif urges Pakistan neutrality on Afghanistan
By ASIF SHAHZAD - Associated Press via Dawn, 6 July 2010:

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan should stop trying to influence affairs in Afghanistan, the opposition leader said Tuesday, while admitting that the pro-Afghan Taliban policy he pursued when he was prime minister in the 1990s was a failure.

Nawaz Sharif's comments come as he tries to gain political traction and deflect criticism that his party is beholden to extremist elements. Just last week, he pushed the government to open talks with elements of the Pakistani Taliban, and the ruling party agreed to his proposal to hold a national conference on stopping terrorism.

The remarks also come as Pakistan tries to weigh in on reconciliation efforts between Afghanistan's government, the U.S. and the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan's historical interest in Afghanistan is largely a result of its desire to assert itself in the region and attain a strategic advantage over archrival India.

In an interview with Pakistan's Dunya TV that aired Monday and Tuesday, Sharif appeared to renounce a policy he pursued with vigor while twice prime minister in the 1990s. Back then, Pakistan openly supported the Afghan Taliban movement as it pushed out other armed factions such as the Northern Alliance and gained control of Kabul.

"Pakistan should abandon this thinking that Pakistan has to keep influence in Afghanistan," said Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-N party. "Neither will they accept influence, nor should the pro-influence-minded people here insist on it."

"Our policy in the past has failed. Neither will such a policy work in future. We have a centuries-old relationship, and we can maintain this relationship only when we remain neutral and support the government elected there with the desire of the Afghan people."

It was unclear where Sharif would stand on the reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan. The role Pakistan would play will likely fall primarily to its military, which operates largely independent of the civilian government anyway and which could be instrumental in bringing some armed Afghan factions to the table.

Sharif's party, which controls the government of Punjab province but sits in opposition in the federal government, is considered more conservative and aligned with pro-Taliban parties than the national ruling Pakistan People's Party.

The PML-N has been criticized in recent months for not going after militant outfits in Punjab, a stance analysts say is driven by its reliance on banned militant groups to deliver key votes during elections. The frustration over the party's dawdling has grown more acute since a bombing at a popular Sufi shrine in Punjab's capital, Lahore, last week killed 47 people.

During Sharif's tenure as prime minister, he not only supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan but also tried to vastly increase the powers of his office while pushing aside Pakistan's penal code in favor of an Islamic justice system. Many saw these ill-fated moves as an attempt to "Talibanize" Pakistan, and they eroded his popularity further.

Sharif was overthrown in a 1999 coup by then-Gen. Pervez Musharraf. As the leader of the opposition now, Sharif has tried to walk a careful line, making it hard to pin him down as being either pro- or anti-Taliban or pro- or anti-American.

While proposing Saturday for peace talks with militants in Pakistan, Sharif said Islamabad should take the initiative instead of waiting for directives from Washington. But he also said the negotiations should be with militants "who are ready to talk and ready to listen."

The government has brokered peace deals with Taliban fighters along the Afghan border in the past, but they have usually collapsed and have often given the militants time to regroup and consolidate their control.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced later Saturday that he'd agreed to Sharif's proposal that an all-parties conference be held on ways to defeat militancy. No date has been announced, and the potential impact is unclear. At least one past such gathering has already been held.

Afghanistan urges Pakistan to act against terrorist groups

H/T Huffington Post

Afghanistan urges Pakistan to act against terror groups
By AFP, July 06, 2010:

: Afghanistan’s national security adviser has called on the Pakistani government to “take serious measures” against militant groups launching attacks on Afghan targets from secure havens inside Pakistan.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta spoke to AFP in an interview a week after the Al-Jazeera television network said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had met the man who runs the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in talks mediated by Pakistan.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Taliban all deny any such meeting. Spanta’s comments signal an about-turn by the Afghan government after months of overtures to Islamabad in efforts to prompt Pakistan to deal with militant groups, including al Qaeda and the Taliban based along the Afghan border. Spanta told AFP on Monday that Afghanistan had “tremendous evidence” that Pakistani authorities allowed al Qaeda and other terror organisations to operate on the country’s soil and had presented it to Islamabad “many times”.

Islamabad had failed to act against the groups based in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border, he told AFP. “My expectation is that Pakistan after nine years — because theoretically Pakistan is part of the anti-terror alliance — they have to begin to take some serious measures against terrorism,” he said. “They have to hand over the leadership of the terrorist groups, they have to give a list of the people they have arrested and are holding in the detention centres in Pakistan. “We have evidence that the terrorists from Pakistan are involved in daily attacks against our people and international ‘jihadi’ groups are active here. They have their base and sanctuaries behind our border and this is a serious problem. We have to address the menace of terrorism,” Spanta said.

Karzai had been seen as trying to reach an arrangement with Pakistan — possibly including a power-sharing deal with the Taliban — that would help bring an end to the war in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year.

This was also seen as a way of giving Pakistan a stake in Afghanistan’s future, despite broad opposition among the Afghan politicians and public. Senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials had visited Kabul in recent months on goodwill visits, Spanta said. “I hope we can begin a constructive dialogue with a serious agenda during the next meeting in Islamabad, or in Kabul… maybe next month,” he said.

Spanta said Pakistan had failed to act against al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban leadership known as the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network, the minor Hekmatyar group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, as well as “Uzbek and Chechen terrorist groups”.

“It is not a particular secret that the terrorists have sanctuaries in Pakistan, that they have training centres, that they have the possibility to come to Afghanistan, attack us and go back,” said Spanta. He denied that Karzai had met Sirajuddin Haqqani, who runs the Haqqani network which often launches attacks in Afghanistan, or the Taliban, “through mediation of Pakistan forces or otherwise”.

Pakistani security officials indicated last month, however, that they were planning to help broker peace efforts in Afghanistan by acting as a bridge between the Kabul government and powerful Haqqani network.