Karzai skipped core issues in Islamabad visit

By Sikander Shaheen in the Nation, Mar 14
ISLAMABAD – The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan naively overlooked the fact that bilateral trade was directly proportional to security situation.
Giving economy preference to security was an unimpressive show of imprudent diplomacy during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent visit to Pakistan.
The mild attitude that Pakistan had shown towards Afghan President reflected that Pakistani authorities were so obliged by Karzai’s arrival that they deemed it better not to get into serious discussions about security issues and stick to economy and trade.
The helplessness shown by Karzai on some key issues reasons enough to believe that despite his high-sounding rhetoric during media appearances here, the discretion to take decisions as head of a sovereign state seemed quite compromised.
The visits of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Secretary of State Robert Gates to Afghanistan proved ‘too much to handle’ for Karzai keeping him tight-lipped on relevant issues including Dr Aafia and Indian military camps in Afghanistan, while he partially parried straight queries regarding Afghan refugees, Indo-Afghan military ties and arrest of key Taliban leaders by Pakistan.
Earlier this week, Pakistan had taken a tough stance to go critical on Afghanistan’s failures that were a cause of terrorism spreading across Pakistan. Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to UK Asif Durrani had quite straightforwardly told a conference held in London on Monday last that Afghan conflict had inflicted a mega economic loss of $3.5 billion on Pakistan.
Durrani had said that it would take years for Pakistan to rehabilitate from the sufferings of Afghan conflict provided that job opportunities were created in the affected areas, terrorism from Afghanistan curtailed, and return of 3.5 million Afghan refugees ensured.
The Envoy had minced no words to state that Pakistan had been a sufferer since Soviet invasion on Afghanistan and highlighted Pakistan’s recent achievements against Taliban in the form of arrests of Al-Qaeda’s top command and key leaders.
Instead of following the same line of action as reflected in the particular conference, Pakistan took a gross U-turn and adopted a submissive tone during Karzai’s visit.
The only ‘fierce resistance’ that Afghan President faced on his tour to Pakistan came from media. The dormant approach of Pakistani government led the journalists to take the charge and push Afghan President into a reality check. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Politics/14-Mar-2010/Karzai-skipped-core-issues-in-Islamabad-visit