A great opportunity for Afghanistan, Pakistan to maintain peace: Rehman Malik
Islamabad: Former interior minister Senator Rehman Malik said Friday that the statement regarding the withdrawal of forces by President Joe Biden did not come as a surprise.
He said the withdrawal of the forces has been a generic statement by almost every incoming American President, which is a matter of public record.
Talking to journalists here, he said: “I do not mean that the statement of President Joe Biden is not serious, however, having interacted with him I can say that he will seriously work to withdraw the forces though I expect opposition from the CIA and the Pentagon.” He hoped that President Joe Biden should mark his name in history as a peacemaker by ending this longest war of the world
The former Interior Minister stated that in fact, Afghanistan has become a military and intelligence drill ground for many countries at the cost of thousands of Afghans and partly Pakistan. He said “I have always maintained that a safe Afghanistan means a safe Pakistan and we also want Afghanistan to handle their issues themselves. I had a number of meetings with Ashraf Ghani, former President Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the current Afghan Foreign Minister and Sayed Jalal Karim (later Presidential candidate).” He said that he firmly believes that the solution of Afghanistan is not in the bullet but dialogue, whereas Pakistan has also been helping Afghan authorities at the cost of our own suffering because of Afghanistan.
He emphasised that both Pakistan and Afghanistan need to work out some home-grown mutually agreed plan in order to march towards peace and this model of Afghan peace (MAP) plan needs to be well deliberated and implemented. He said that it was worrying for every Pakistani to hear an unfriendly statement from President Ashraf Ghani recently at the Presidential Palace in which he stated “Today, it is a day of decision for Pakistan, if our country is destabilised, their country will also be unstable and if they (Pakistan) want our improvement, they will also improve, the choice of friendship and enmity is in Pakistan’s hands”. He said that the main spirit of Afghan President’ statement is a warning to Pakistan which is serious and there are clear threats to Pakistan and obviously, the government of Pakistan owes a befitting response to Afghanistan. He expressed that unfortunately, within three days of his statement, we noticed a bombing at Serena Hotel in Quetta.
Senator Rehman Malik urged that let us have a hypothetical model of Afghanistan after the American withdrawal and the most important aspect of this decision by Joe Biden is that it is not a condition-based drawdown, unlike former US presidents who have generally put forth a redeployment condition in Afghanistan based on the threat posed by local enemies and the capabilities of local allies.
While expressing his apprehensions, Rehman Malik said that by this announcement, it seems that the peace process will eventually stand null and void and unlikely to progress since the Taliban have no incentive to compromise now that the troops are leaving without conditions. He added however there is an opportunity for the Taliban to rise unhindered as local Afghan forces will not be able to resist them marching towards the capital. He said that Taliban leaders are even of the view that they have won the war already as the Taliban’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, recently said “no Mujahid ever thought that one day we would face such an improved state, or that we will crush the arrogance of the rebellious emperors and force them to admit their defeat at our hands and fortunately, today, we and you are experiencing better circumstances”. He said that this statement of Siraj Haqani confirms my well-thought apprehensions. He said that on the other hand, US lawmakers and other analysts are not happy with Biden’s decision as they are uncertain about what will happen in Afghanistan once US President Joe Biden withdraws the remaining 2,500 to 3,500 US troops by September 11 to end the country’s longest war.
Senator Rehman Malik further expressed that Afghanistan will turn into a mass graveyard unless some mechanism of the US is deployed to stop the likely civil war. He said that Afghan peace will depend on the understanding between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the second possibility is that it could lead to the creation of a new terrorist haven in Afghanistan with widespread influence and rule of Taliban. He said that Taliban take over cannot be ruled out post-withdrawal of American forces and certainly we would not want the Iraq-like situation of 2011 to be repeated in Afghanistan; it may bring another wave of terror.
He said that it will be a challenging moment for President Ashraf Ghani to deal with such a change in the region with no external forces yet the deadly one on its own soil—the Taliban. He said that it is a great opportunity for Afghanistan as well as Pakistan to come to an agreement with the Taliban to maintain peace and authority in the region without interference from external elements unless some friendly countries like Saudi Arabia or UAE may volunteer to become mediators between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan Government. He also recalled his one of official meetings with President Bush Jr in the White House wherein he had stated that the US would not win this war in Afghanistan as all the American allies including Pakistan do not have a common strategy to fight against the common enemy and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed his.
