Former President Pervaiz Musharraf Sunday accused the United States of using Pakistan as a scapegoat for its failure in Afghanistan.
In an interview with a private news channel, Musharraf said that Pakistani forces should use whatever influence they have and tell the Haqqanis not to cross the border.
He also said that the US was responsible for controlling Haqqani activities on the Afghan side of the border.
Former US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman Admiral Mike Mullen had caused a diplomatic storm by saying at a recent Senate hearing that the Haqqani network of terrorists was “a veritable arm” of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and that the Pakistani intelligence agency had directed the militant group’s recent attacks at US installations in Kabul.
Terming Mullen’s statement as irresponsible, Musharraf said that the blame game needs to stop, and that Pakistan and the US need to come onto the same page against their common enemy.
He said that the world needs to understand the standpoint of Pakistan, and unless the US stops violating Pakistani interests, there would be no more alliance between the two nations.
The former president stressed on the need to identify the peace-seeking Taliban and hold reconciliatory talks with them.
“Unfortunately, this selective process has been dubbed by the US as a sort of double game”, he added.
US using Pakistan as scapegoat for Afghanistan failure: Musharraf
