Afghanistan Times
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It was believed by the idealists that reciprocal visits of Pakistani and Afghan leaders would usher in a new era—an era of peace and tranquility. However, the hopes proved no more than water-bubbles, burst within no time. Optimism of the idealists has been dashed to the ground as Islamabad still thinks that it got upper hand over the Afghan government.
Pakistan has miscalculated Afghanistan’s recent approach. President Ashraf Ghani’s recent policy statement had changed much in regard to Afghan-Pak affairs and underlined these miscalculations, though, indirectly. “We hoped for peace, but we are receiving messages of war from Pakistan,” he added. With this statement, President Ashraf Ghani stole the show and exposed the real face of Pakistan. Ghani blamed Islamabad for the recent spate of deadliest terror attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul. He also said that the last few days have shown that suicide training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan. The problem is still as it is. President Ghani eventually had to take the chorus of disappointment with Pakistan similar to the ex-President Hamid Karzai and members of his administration. And the problem is still as it was because Pakistan responded with the same cold shouldered response. It looks Ghani is damn furious while those sitting in the Pakistan’s GHQ (real power center) still needs some time to realize their follies. But instead of realizing their tomfooleries, they in the wake of sharp criticism by Kabul, postponed its scholarship program for Afghan students. The embassy of Pakistan said in a statement that due to recent development and evolving security situation in Afghanistan, it has been decided to delay the scholarship process for the year 2015-16 indefinitely. This is the same Pakistan, Ghani, was pinning high hopes on. Ghani paid a state visit to India where he looked much passive. He attempted to reverse the programs which were initiated by his predecessor with India. A few weeks after Ghani’s visit to New Delhi, India announced 1,000 scholarships for Afghan students on annual basis through to the end of 2020. The announcement was made by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an autonomous organization of Indian government formally established in 1950. Of these scholarships, 1000 are exclusively for Afghan students. The ICCR scholarship scheme was launched for Afghanistan during the government of Hamid Karzai in 2005.
Policies of the two countries towards Afghanistan are crystal-clear. India as a friend is serving the war-hit nation in many areas including education and infrastructure rebuilding while Pakistan is sending packs of militants every day to destroy the infrastructure and kill innocent people. When India is building dams in Afghanistan, Pakistan is destroying bridges, killing engineers and not letting the Kabul leadership to build a dam on the Kunar River.
Pro-US military dictator of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, has already accepted that he ordered ISI to train Taliban and create challenges for Hamid Karzai for being pro-India. Now the question is that why Pakistan is sabotaging the government of President Ghani who is not pro-India. The answer is obvious. India is a time-tested friend and Pakistan is a sworn enemy. Islamabad will never allow Kabul to stand on its own feet.
