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Pakistan Opposes Extended US Operations
Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Sunday expressed concern about an extended US operation in neighbouring Afghanistan, and confirmed that Islamabad had asked Washington to hold back on bombing to keep the Northern Alliance from taking Kabul.
Sattar also said that Afghanistan's King Zahir Shah, who was overthrown in 1973, would be acceptable to Pakistan as head of a broad-based government once the Taliban are ousted. "I think the longer this operation lasts, the greater the damage, collateral damage," Sattar, speaking from Islamabad, told ABC's "This Week" programme. "And the larger the number of Afghan refugees that enter Pakistan, the greater will be the worry and concern in Pakistan."
Sattar also said reports that Pakistan had asked the United States to hold back on bombing front-line Taliban forces to stop the Northern Alliance from taking Kabul were "substantially true". "At this time for the minority ethnic group in the Northeast to march down to the south, capture Kabul, will destabilise an already volatile situation," he said. Sattar said Pakistan supported UN efforts to create a process to build a broad-based multi-ethnic government after the war.
He said that Afghan King Zahir Shah would be acceptable to Pakistan as head of such a government in spite of his association with the Northern Alliance. "We have nothing against the Northern Alliance," he said. "The question really is that there should be a balance, namely that the ethnic communities should be represented in the future government." The minister said that Pakistan would support the presence of UN foreign forces in Kabul if needed to make a multi-ethnic government work. But they did not have to be exclusively Islamic forces, he said.
"If the government needs the presence of foreign forces under the umbrella of the United Nations, I think it should be the duty of one of us to help them," he said. "Whether they are all Islamic forces or not is a different matter."
Concerning the region of Kashmir that is fiercely contested by Pakistan and India, Sattar said that the United Nations could help strike up a dialogue between the two nations. "The United States, along with other members of the Security Council of the United Nations, can help recommence a dialogue between Pakistan and India, so that we can attempt to arrive at the solution acceptable to the people of Kashmir," he said. US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to arrive in Islamabad on Monday for talks with Pakistani officials which will include the subject of Kashmir.
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