Pakistan Stops Official Contact with Afghan National Security Chief

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has conveyed to the leadership in Afghanistan it will no longer conduct official business with Kabul’s top national security chief because of his recent “abusive outburst” against Islamabad, highly placed officials and diplomatic sources confirmed to VOA Friday. The controversy has again highlighted political tensions and historic mistrust plaguing relations between the South Asian neighbors, which share a nearly 2,600-kilometer border. The latest trigger came from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, who routinely accuses Pakistan and its spy agency of supporting and directing the Taliban’s insurgency in Afghanistan, charges Islamabad rejects. In a public speech earlier this month in eastern Nangarhar province, next to the Pakistani border, Mohib not only repeated his allegations but called Pakistan a “brothel house.” His remarks outraged leaders in Islamabad, who denounced them, saying they “debased all norms of interstate communication.” A senior Pakistani official privy to the matter told VOA on condition of anonymity his government lodged a strong protest with the Afghan side and conveyed “deep resentment” in Pakistan over Mohib’s “undignified” remarks. The official said Kabul has been told Islamabad, henceforth, would not hold bilateral engagements with the Afghan national security adviser. It has also been conveyed “by our side that Afghan side is not serious in engaging with Pakistan, but only in the blame game and degrading Pakistan’s sincere efforts,” the official added.

  Diplomatic sources confirmed to VOA that Pakistan’s military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, during his visit to Kabul this month, had raised the issue in his meeting with Ghani in the presence of Nick Carter, Britain’s chief of the defense staff. VOA approached Mohib’s office for a reaction but could not immediately get a response. Carter has been engaged in facilitating contacts between the two countries to help ease tensions at a time when the United States and NATO allies have been withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war with the Taliban. An official Pakistani military statement following the May 10 meeting in Kabul confirmed it was held in the presence of Carter. “Matters of mutual interest, current developments in the Afghan peace process, enhanced bilateral security and defense cooperation and need for effective border management between the two brotherly countries were discussed,” the statement said, but it did not say anything about the controversy stemming from Mohib’s remarks. Washington had also stopped meetings with the Afghan national security adviser over controversial remarks he made on a visit to the U.S. two years ago, though contact has since been resumed. Mohib had accused Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, of undercutting the Kabul government in bilateral U.S.-Taliban peace negotiations. Khalilzad was leading the talks that culminated in an agreement in February 2020 with the insurgents, setting the stage for the foreign troop drawdown from the war-torn nation, which began on May 1 and is expected to be completed by September 11.