Pakistan has gone the ‘extra mile’ in Afghanistan

[EagleEyes]

Pakistan has gone the ‘extra mile’ in Afghanistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: “We have been the target of a whisper campaign that we are not doing enough, but no one has yet defined what enough is,” Tariq Azim Khan, Pakistan’s minister of state for information, told the Washington Post, when questioned about the border infiltration dispute with Afghanistan.

“We have gone the extra mile, and we have lost many troops. This is a joint fight and a joint struggle, but we can only look after our side of the border. The Afghans have to look after their side, too,” he told Pamela Constable of the Post in Islamabad.

Asked about Pakistan’s latest proposal to lay mines and string barbed wire along parts of the 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan, which some observers see as either cynical or far-fetched, Azim said, “If people take the legal routes, there will be no problem. They will be clearly marked. Our intention is to go after those who want to move illegally.” He compared Pakistan’s plan to the strenuous efforts made by US authorities to stop illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico. The minister noted that in addition to insurgent fighters, drug traffickers use hidden routes to bring opium out of Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the world’s heroin supply. He suggested that drug-related groups, who are powerful in southern Afghanistan, could be using their influence against the border-sealing plan.

The Post report published on Sunday said that the “contretemps” is the latest sour note in a deteriorating relationship between two staunch US allies that are linked by the common threat of terrorism but divided by bitter cross-charges of failing to curb a growing Islamic insurgency that operates on both sides of the border. Karzai has said that the plan “will not prevent terrorism, but it will divide the two nations.” The tension has persisted despite a series of high-level meetings between Karzai and senior Pakistani officials, including the two-day visit by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the Afghan capital this week and a private session with President Bush at the White House in September that brought Karzai together with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

The Post quoted the head of South Asia at the State Department, Richard Boucher, who said two weeks ago during a visit to Canada, “The Taliban have been able to use those areas for sanctuary and for command and control and for regrouping and supply.” At the same time, he noted that Pakistani authorities had historically not “held sway” in the tribal regions. The report said Pakistani officials maintain that they have tried every possible means of reining in the fighters, first sending about 80,000 army troops to the restive border areas and then negotiating agreements with tribal leaders who pledged to control or eject armed Islamic groups. Both efforts have met with major problems.

According to Constable, “The information minister and other Pakistani officials insist that it is very much in Pakistan’s interest to have Afghanistan become stable and peaceful, in part because Pakistan is tired of hosting several million refugees from years of Afghan conflict and is worried that renewed turmoil could send a new flood of people fleeing across the border.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\08\story_8-1-2007_pg7_16