WASHINGTON, Pakistan\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, has disputed a claim by a US lawmaker that Pakistani military strategy led to the defeat of the Afghan Army at the hands of the Taliban, telling him that Islamabad and Washington have in fact been working together towards an inclusive political settlement in the war-torn country.
\n\u201cOur two countries share a fundamental interest in ensuring that Afghanistan would never again become a sanctuary for terrorist groups,\u201d he said in a letter addressed to Republican Congressman Mike Waltz, a former US Army officer who served in Afghanistan.
\nThe Pakistani envoy was responding to a letter Congressman Waltz wrote to President Joe Biden ahead of the fall of President Ashraf Ghani\u2019s government in which he had claimed that Pakistan\u2019s military strategy was dictating the Taliban advance in Afghanistan and called for penalizing Islamabad.
\nNoting that while events have overtaken some of the recommendations that Congressman Waltz had made, Ambassador Khan said it was \u201cunfortunate that your letter mischaracterizes Pakistan\u2019s role in Afghanistan.\u201d
\n\u201cThe contention that Pakistan\u2019s \u2018military strategy\u2019 was somehow the decisive factor in the defeat of the 300,000-strong Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDS) \u2013 trained and equipped at the cost of at least $83 billion to the American taxpayer \u2013 does not square with the U.S. government\u2019s own assessments about the issues of low morale, desertions, and \u2018ghost soldiers\u2019 that had long plagued the ANDSF,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cAs the (US) Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction had been reporting (until it was barred from doing so by the Pentagon), the Afghan government had been steadily losing territory to the Taliban for many years, Ambassador Khan said, adding that the final collapse of the Afghan government was thus shocking but hardly surprising.
\n\u201cAs someone who has served his country in uniform and with distinction, you know that demoralized soldiers do not fight for a corrupt, kleptocratic leadership that will bolt at the first hint of trouble\u201d, he wrote to Congressman Waltz.
\nOn its part, he said Pakistan\u2019s leadership has consistently made it clear that it no favourites in Afghanistan and would work with any government in Kabul that has the support of the Afghan people, pointing out Pakistan had joined the United States, China, and Russia in explicitly opposing any effort to impose a government by force in Kabul.
\n\u201cWe continued to urge both the Afghan government and the Taliban to show flexibility and engage more meaningfully in order to secure a political settlement and a comprehensive ceasefire,\u201d the Pakistan envoy\u2019s letter said, adding, \u201cUnfortunately, neither side was in any mood to listen.\u201d
\n\u201cEven after the fall of the Ghani regime, we have continued to support the formation of a broad-based government in Kabul that represents Afghanistan\u2019s ethnic diversity and preserves the impressive social and democratic gains it has made since 2001.
\n\u201cIt may interest you to learn that on the very day that President Ghani abandoned his people and fled abroad, Pakistan was hosting a diverse group of Afghan politicians \u2013 including leaders from the former Northern Alliance \u2013 as part of its continuing efforts to promote a common understanding on Afghanistan\u2019s political future,\u201d Ambassador Khan added.
\n\u201cThe swift collapse of the Afghan government has, if anything, proven the futility of investing more effort and money into finding a military solution to a political problem.\u201d
\nRecounting some of the efforts Pakistan is making in evacuating Americans and Afghans from Kabul, he said the Pakistani embassy in Kabul issuing visas.
\n\u201cOur doors and borders are open to the Afghan people who still look to Pakistan as their first port of call in moments of distress \u2013 notwithstanding the erstwhile Afghan regime\u2019s deliberate campaign to poison relations between our two countries\u201d.
\nPakistan International Airlines, he added, has been ferrying foreign diplomats, journalists, and international aid workers out of Afghanistan, and that Pakistan has also been working closely with U.S. authorities on the ground in Kabul and in Islamabad to support the safe and orderly evacuation of Americans and Afghans from Hamid Karzai International airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, Pakistan\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, has disputed a claim by a US lawmaker that Pakistani military strategy led to the defeat of the Afghan Army at the hands of the Taliban, telling him that Islamabad and Washington have in fact […]<\/p>\n
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