Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called for a "major rehabilitation" plan for neighboring Afghanistan following a "short, sharp" military action to stamp out alleged terrorists, saying that a future government in Afghanistan should be "friendly" to Pakistan, AFP reported on Monday.
"We need to plan a major rehabilitation effort in Afghanistan as fast and as soon on the heels of the action in Afghanistan [as possible]," he told a press conference the morning after US-led forces attacked Taliban sites across Afghanistan.
"We know that with these actions last night there are massive drops of food aid into Afghanistan," he said, referring to US food drops for 37,500 displaced Afghans which were timed to coincide with the military strikes.
He said rehabilitation was essential to rebuild Afghanistan following more than 20 years of war and three years of drought, to create a stable state where religious extremism could no longer flourish.
Musharraf made clear his hopes that a government friendly to his regime would be set up as soon as the US-led coalition concludes its military activities there.
"Certainly Pakistan would like to have a friendly Afghanistan on our west," Musharraf told reporters in Islamabad following the US-led military strikes.
Musharraf said he had sought and received assurances from the United States and Britain that a "friendly" Afghan government would be the outcome of military action against the Taliban regime.
"I have been assured," he said in response to a question on whether he had discussed the make-up of a post-Taliban government with the Western powers.
Musharraf said repeatedly during his press conference that Pakistan's policy towards Afghanistan, and its support of the military action against the Taliban, was in his country's national interests.
"No policies remain constant, only national interests remain constant," he said.
Musharraf indicated he would not accept the opposition Northern Alliance, which is counting on the US-led strikes to help them wrest control of the country from the Taliban, as a viable dominant force in a future government.
"Certainly the Northern Alliance [opposition] must be kept in check so that we do not return to the period of anarchy," Musharraf told a press conference after US-led attacks against the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
He said the alliance represented only 10 to 15 percent of the country and Afghanistan would descend into anarchy if they took over.
Musharraf said the dominant ethnic Pashtun group, which the Taliban draws its support from, made up between 50 and 60 percent of Afghanistan's population and must form a major stake in a post-Taliban government.
Musharraf indicated that the exiled former Afghan king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who is a Pashtun, could have some role to play.
He said Pakistan had received assurances from the allied forces that any new "political dispensation" in Afghanistan would be broad-based and representative of the country's complex ethnic makeup.
The fall of the Taliban regime, representing the majority Pashtun ethnic majority, would create a volatile "political vacuum" which the opposition ethnic minority forces must not be allowed to fill.
"This action [US-led strikes against the Taliban] should not be allowed to be taken advantage of by the Northern Alliance," he said, adding: "The post-action scenario has to be extremely balanced."
"If this void is filled by the Northern Alliance ... I think we will return to anarchy and the atrocities and the criminal killings," he said, referring to the factional infighting of the early 1990s.
The groups making up the opposition forces, including the Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic minorities, are poised to help allied forces and capitalize on the Taliban's weakness to expand their remote pockets of territory.
But many Afghans have bitter memories of the how the disparate ethnic factions, including Pashtun groups, turned Kabul into a war zone as they fought for the spoils of power following the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation.
The Taliban militia seized Kabul in 1996 and were initially welcomed by the population because they restored security after years of violent lawlessness.
Musharraf said he was prepared to speak to exiled former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah about prospects for a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan.
"In that vacuum maybe Zahir Shah has a role to play, but we need to analyze and crystallize our view," he said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
