Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani government signed an intelligence cooperation agreement with Pakistan
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (Photo: AP)
Kabul: Signalling a fundamental shift in security policy likely to adversely impact India, Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani government signed an intelligence cooperation agreement with Pakistan last week which aims to direct its energies against “enemies” of Afghanistan.
The deal between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, signed May 14, two days after a high-powered Pakistani delegation led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif left Kabul after comprehensive talks, has provoked instant controversy.
The reverberations of the wider significance that the intelligence cooperation deal may signify appear to be spreading in political quarters. It is reliably learnt that Engineer Nabeel, Afghanistan’s spy chief, would have nothing to do with the agreement. Therefore, on the Afghan side, it was his deputy who was asked to affix his signature. This development was confirmed in diplomatic circles here. During the talks the Pakistani team had with their Afghan hosts last week, it is understood that ISI chief Lt. General Rizwan Akhtar and Mr Nabeel engaged in vociferous recriminations, and tempers ran high.
On learning of these developments, a pre-eminent Afghan leader told this correspondent: “All these years we thought it was the ISI that was engaging in enmity with us for no fault of ours. Now the ISI will be looking to punish Afghanistan’s enemies!”
The country has no defence minister yet, and this matter is frequently raised in Parliament to embarrass the government. Parliament must give its clearance to presidential appointees for the Cabinet. President Ghani’s decision to invite the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, General John F. Campbell, who is also the head of the International Security Assistance Force, to sit in on meetings of the country’s National Security Council draws caustic comment here.
( Source : dc )
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