KARACHI, 16 November — Public reaction to Taleban’s fall from power in Afghanistan has been mixed in Pakistan with former Prime Minister and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto welcoming the Northern Alliance victory, and the rival Jamaat-e-Islami taking a softer line on the issue.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, which had taken an aggressive stand against the government of President Pervez Musharraf for siding with America in its war against Osama Bin Laden, and his Al-Qaeda network, appeared subdued after the loss of Kabul, Kunduz and other cities, when it issued a brief statement, saying the Taleban had themselves withdrawn from most of the cities to save their country from bloodshed.
A staunch supporter of Mulla Muhammad Omar and his associates, Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, however, thought that the withdrawal of former government of Afghanistan would pose new problems for Pakistan. Another religious party leader, Maulana Azam Tariq of Sipah-e-Sahaba looked confident about Taleban achieving victory ultimately. He looked sad at the turn of events in Pakistan’s neighborhood, but thought that the Taleban would re-emerge with greater force.
The former ISI chief, retired Gen. Hamid Gul, who was in the forefront of supporting the Taleban, anticipated a long-drawn guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan. Similar reactions were offered by a prominent leader of the pro-Nawaz Sharif faction of the Muslim League party, Raja Zafarul Haq, Maulana Tahirul Qadri, who heads a small religious party, and the secretary-general of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan former Gen. K.M. Azhar, feared a civil war in Afghanistan if a broad based government was not immediately set up in Afghanistan.
Benazir in her comments welcomed the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Northern Alliance. At the same time she expressed the hope that the Northern Alliance would reach out to the Pakhtoon Afghans. She said that all the time the PPP was stressing that the different groups in Afghanistan needed to come together to rebuild the country and give the war ravaged people of Afghanistan hope for a better future. She prayed that the sufferings of the Afghan people, “who are our neighbors and brothers and sisters” could end quickly.
She was sorry to see that Islamabad was unable to play a critical role despite its front-line status in the international coalition. She said that Islamabad seemed to have followed a strategy of buying time. This was a two-pronged strategy wherein on the one hand Islamabad insisted that a broad based government be formed before the fall of Kabul and simultaneously promised an in house Taleban revolt.
