Pakistan No More A Kingmaker, Says Karzai

Daily Times

Friday, May 19, 2006

KABUL: Pakistan should know that gone are the days when Afghan governments were formed in Pakistan and dissolved there, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quoted as saying on Thursday.

“Afghans are now themselves masters of their country and the Afghan people themselves will take decisions,” Karzai was quoted as telling tribal elders and officials in Kunar. He alleged that Pakistan was training militants and sending them into Afghanistan. “Islamabad should realise it no longer has power to determine events in Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence gives military training to people and then sends them to Afghanistan with logistics,” the Afghan Islamic Press news agency quoted Karzai.

Karzai described Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar as a coward “hiding in the other country and sending youth to kill our people”. “Pakistan wants that Afghanistan be its military base but that dream will never come true.” Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam has termed Karzai’s statement “baseless and absurd”. She said that instead of accusing Pakistan, Afghanistan should take action against infighters. Agencies