Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan in danger of sliding 'under thumb' of Pakistan - The Guardian

Former president tells the Guardian of his concern over Afghanistan’s tilt towards Pakistan and Ashraf Ghani’s gamble on brokering a peace deal with the Taliban

Afghanistan’s historic struggles against British imperialism and Soviet invasion will have been in vain if the country succumbs to pressure from neighbouring Pakistan, Hamid Karzai has warned in an interview with the Guardian.

The former president of Afghanistan made his remarks at a time when his successor, Ashraf Ghani, has overturned the country’s traditionally hostile relationship with Pakistan in the hope of enlisting its help in brokering a peace deal with the Taliban.

Several once-unthinkable concessions made to Pakistan in recent months have horrified Karzai and many of the men who helped him rule for more than a decade.

“We want a friendly relationship but not to be under Pakistan’s thumb,” he said.

It is a view many think Ghani cannot afford to ignore, given how many people agree with Karzai, a familiar and charismatic figure who remains in the thick of Afghan politics.

The man who famously never took a holiday while in power rushed back early from a recent break in China to his new home and office complex in Kabul, a scaled-down version of the capital’s 19th-century presidential palace.

As well as maintaining many of the trappings of the head of state, he continues to behave like one, receiving a daily stream of officials, foreign ambassadors and tribal delegations from across the country.

Karzai rejected any suggestion he is at the centre of what one of his former colleagues describes as an emerging “pocket of opposition” to Ghani.

“Yes, I have differences, but I will not say anything,” Karzai said. “I will keep mum, giving advice to President Ghani in private. I absolutely support this government.”

Despite professing loyalty, Karzai sharply criticised some of Ghani’s key innovations, such as the decision last month to send six army cadets to Pakistan for officer training. Karzai’s willingness to send men to India while spurning Pakistan enraged Pakistan’s generals, who believed the future leaders of the Afghan army were being indoctrinated by their mortal enemies.

“We should not send troops for training in any of the neighbouring countries, particularly when they are sending us suicide bombers in return,” Karzai said – a reference to the fact that the leadership of the Taliban, and much of the movement’s organisational and logistical muscle, is allowed to operate freely inside Pakistan.

Last month, Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf admitted in aGuardian interview that his country’s intelligence agency had links with the Taliban because India and Pakistan were engaged in a “proxy war” in Afghanistan.

Karzai’s associates spoke even more frankly about their anger at Ghani’s Pakistan policy.

Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a former foreign minister and national security adviser who sat in on the Guardian’s meeting with Karzai, said the policy amounts to the humiliating “appeasement” of a hostile power who would never change its ways.  
  
With public distrust, even hatred, of Pakistan running so deep, Ghani urgently needs to show his policy is bearing fruit.

Making matters more pressing is the unhappiness of many of the country’s power brokers with the “national unity government” Ghani was compelled to form with his rival Abdullah Abdullah after last year’s botched presidential election, which was spoiled by massive electoral fraud.  

The attempt to share power cut the number of jobs available to appease disgruntled backers of both men. Causing further annoyance is Ghani’s effort to exclude from power what one diplomat in Kabul calls “mafia business types” whom Karzai was always careful to keep close, even at the cost of government dysfunction and corruption.

“The mafia types are very unhappy with the way things are going and are moving towards Karzai and others,” the diplomat said. “Signs of progress on peace talks, or a blunting of the spring offensive, has become politically very important for Ghani.”   -  Read More at Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan in danger of sliding 'under thumb' of Pakistan

Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan in danger of sliding 'under thumb' of Pakistan