Editorial: Keeping one's own house in order

According to Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, “We look after our home and it is up to the Afghan government to manage its own.” This disappointing response reveals once more the interventionist ambitions of the Pakistani military leadership with regard to Afghanistan, and shows that Islamabad is not ready to cooperate in defusing the current tension. How can we act to look after our home when terrorist groups infiltrate our borders from your territory day and night, to carry out assassination and destruction? Today we build a school, and at night terrorists come from Pakistan and destroy it. If construction workers go out to build roads or repair buildings, people coming from Pakistan kill them or take them hostage. We ask Pakistan honestly: has anyone from Afghanistan ever carried out any suicide attack on your territory? Has any Afghan destroyed any building or institution in Pakistan? We are sure the answer is no. So it is Pakistan’s ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) that is igniting the flame of rebellion in Afghanistan, and spoiling our chance to rebuild and rejuvenate our country. Is such an act justified against a nation that defeated a superpower and could also invade your country? Now the intentions of Pakistani military circles have been laid bare: they aim to keep Afghanistan weak, dependent and subordinate, so that it forgets its own history. The Pakistani leadership should do us a favour and not disrupt the reconstruction process, because peace in Afghanistan means peace in Pakistan. If they do not, they will reap what they sow.