Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
Stop painting us as villain,envoy tells coalition allies-High Commissioner Abdul Malik Abdullah
(Monday 28th Nov 2011, Exclusive Interview in Canberra by: BRENDAN NICH) PAKISTAN'S New High Commissioner to Australia Abdul Malik Abdullah, has told The Australian that his country is tired of being painted as the villain in the Afghanistan conflict and badly needs Australia's friendship and support.
Recently forced to defend claims by senior American officers that Pakistan is giving strong backing to insurgents such as the Haqqani network in Afghanistan and that its Inter Services Intelligence service (ISI) is arming and supplying insurgents, Pakistan is now turning to Australia in the hope it might intercede with coalition allies on its behalf.
Mr Abdullah, who said he hoped Australia would extend an invitation for Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, to make an official visit to Australia next year, added: "We are grateful to Australia that its response to our difficulties, our situation, has been very, very encouraging compared to some of our allies.
"I have felt the Australian government has a far better understanding than most of the other allies of what is happening in Afghanistan from the point of view of our constraints, limitations and the role that we are playing."
In the past 10 years, more than 6500 Pakistani soldiers and over 3600 police had been killed in the border areas. They included more than ISI 380 officials. Another 20,000 personnel had been wounded.
Almost daily terrorist bombings had killed about 30,000 civilians. Hundreds more people had been killed in US drone attacks. No other country had paid that price in Afghanistan, he said. "Innocent civilians are being targeted in our markets, in our schools, in our places of worship, in bomb blasts in government offices, police stations. These are not mere statistics. We are talking about lost human lives.
"But we have no option but to win this war because even if international forces leave after 2014, Pakistan will still be there.
"We would like that this war should succeed. Afghanistan should be at peace and stable because we feel that our own peace and stability is linked with the peace and stability of Afghanistan."
Mr Abdullah said the fact that ISI offices had been attacked by insurgents many times should indicate that the agency was not supporting the insurgents.
"If the ISI is on one hand getting its people killed and on the other hand supporting those who are killing its people, how is that possible? That doesn't seem logical." But he conceded that support might be coming from individuals without official sanction. "There might be non-state actors which would be beyond our control. If we could control them, Pakistan would not be suffering as many bomb blasts and suicide attacks.
"There are some retired old senior officials and junior officials who speak openly on the TV, in the media against Pakistan's war.
"They blame the government for taking on the mantle of this war even though it was not our war. They say the government is getting its people killed.
"Some of them were in ISI and perhaps some of them are still maintaining contact with the militants.
"But as far as the state of Pakistan and the state institutions are concerned, they are not involved.
"We have by the grace of God a very disciplined and professional army and ISI is part of that armed forces set-up."
Mr Abdullah said the ISI maintained contacts with all the radical groups, but so did other intelligence agencies, even America's CIA.
"The fact of the matter is that the Haqqani group is not under our influence. They do not listen to us. They have control of at least three provinces in Afghanistan: Paktiya, Paktika and Khost."
Mr Abdullah said it made no sense for Pakistan to be helping the insurgents when it did not have the resources to protects its own people and diplomats.
"Are we committing suicide? Why would we try to derail the peace process?
"There are people who are asking the government how many thousands more of us have to be killed before we get a certificate from our allies that Pakistan has done enough?"
