WASHINGTON: Islamabad’s envoy to the U.S. has asked critics of his country’s anti-terror performance not to judge its resolve by the past raw Afghan war field leaks but view it in the context of current unified efforts, marked by Pakistan’s countless sacrifices and unprecdented level of cooperation with Washington and Kabul. Ambassador Husain Haqqani, appearing in the widely watched Charlie Rose Show, also drew attention to the importance of addressing Pakistan’s regional concerns vis-a-vis India.

He also said Islamabad would be deeply worried, should the U.S.  somehow suddenly pull out from its insurgency-hit western neighbor Afghanistan, in a replay of the situation that happened in the late 1980s when the U.S. left the region immediately after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.  

The envoy said, as emphasized by US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman Joint Chiefs Staff, the United States and Pakistan have made substantive improvement in cooperative ties in the last two years (under President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani).

“A lot of reference to the past takes place without any understanding of the substantive changes taking place both in the way Pakistan sees the situation and how Pakistan is dealing with it,”

he pointed out, while commenting on the out-of-context evaluations by critics, who are yet to update their understanding of the ongoing cooperative efforts. 

Haqqani called documents released by WikiLeaks online organization on the situation obtaining during 2004 to 09 years as unrefined and obsolete and the act of disclosures as a “little sideshow.”

“These reports do not reflect what is happening today  - today Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States are working together, much better than in the last ten years to try and stem the tide of Taliban and to make sure that al-Qaeda is defeated.”

Islamabad, he said, is supportive of an “Afghan-led reconcilation process.” “Other than that, anybody who targets civilians, whether in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States or any other country, is a terrorist, and we oppose terrorists and we will fight them.”

Haqqani also referred to vastly improved Pakistan-Afghanistan ties and friendly” relations between President Zardari and President Karzai as a measure of Islamabad’s sincere intentions.

In another evidence of close cooperative ties, Pakistan and Afghanistan last week concluded a transit trade agreement, that came about after a period of 45 years, he noted. 

Asked why Pakistani intelligence in the past had maintained contacts with the militants, the diplomat reminded American viewers that both the CIA and the ISA worked in tandem to support Mujahideen in the fight against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Mujahideen then morphed into the Taliban, he added.

But the situation today is far different and the Pakistani security apparauts is fighting the Taliban at a great cost of lives, he said.

“Now the Pakistani military and Pakistani intelligence service are conducting successful (anti-Taliban) operations in Swat, South Waziristan... we have taken out a lot of leaders of Taliban from both sides of the border.

“Moreover, 74 ISI personnel have been killed in the last two years and as many as 243 injured in attacks by the Taliban. That alone should be sufficient to convince people that that was then and now is now.

And Pakistan is now standing firmly on the side of those who want to eliminiate the Taliban and the extremists in our region.”

He told the program that “whether it is the inter-services intelligence or the army, they all operate in the context of Pakistan’s constitutional arrangements.”

The Pakistani government including the military and intelligence services are very clear about the future direction of the country.

“We want good relations with our neighbors, have no intention to carve out a sphere of influence in Afghanistan. We are concerned about the influence of India in Afghanistan becasue we have had conflict with India. And we do not want to be in a situation in which we are caught in a pincer movement.”

Pakistan believes the “solution to that lies in talking to the Indians, talking to the Afghans and we are doing both,” he added.

Questioned if Pakistan would be worried in the event of an abrupt U.S. departure from the region somehow and if Pakistan would then need a player to look after its interests in Afghanistan, the ambassador replied: “I would say yes to the first part, we do worry about the sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan. That might lead us in a situation similar to the one immediately after the Soviet withdrawal (in late 1980s).  When the Soviets withdrew, the Americans withdrew as well, leaving us in the lurch and the Afghans without any direction and without any resources to deal with the aftermath.

“But the solution to that is not try and have a future potential protegees or having various kinds of people in Afghanistan that we can use for trying to influence the course of Afghanistan.”

Rather, he explained, the solution is befriending the leaders of fghanistan,”which is what we are doing, our military leadership, our intelligence leadership, our political leadership, they have all been engaging with President Karzai.” Besides, he said, the United States has facilitated a tripartite process, which is really moving quite well. (APP)