Musharraf rejects US allegations about ISI's links with Haqqanis

Rejecting the accusations by American officials that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was waging a proxy war in Afghanistan, Musharraf claimed the US was using Pakistan as a scapegoat for its failures in the neighbouring country.Addressing a press conference in Washington he described the allegations about the ISI supporting the Haqqani network as “irresponsible”. The responsibility for dealing with the Haqqanis should be “equally shared” by Pakistan and the US, he said.Pakistan forces should use whatever influence they have and tell the Haqqanis not to cross the border. At the same time, US forces are responsible for controlling the Haqqanis on the Afghan side of the border, he added.He said that former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani was a friend of Pakistan, and Pakistan suffered the most due to his death. He said that if Rabbani’s killer came from Pakistan even then it does not mean that the killer was sent by Pakistan army or its intelligence wing.Musharraf said the blame game needs to stop so that Pakistan and the US could work against a common enemy. The world needs to understand Pakistan’s viewpoint and unless the US stops violating Pakistani interests, there could be no alliance between the two sides, he said.The former president said that said that the Government of Pakistan should not negotiate with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. “Talking to them shows the government’s weakness,” he said.“If we have an unstable Afghanistan on the border, if the people of Afghanistan cannot handle the situation themselves and the coalition and the US forces leave as they have decided in 2014, then there is a possibility civil war in Afghanistan,” he said.Claiming that India is being given space in Afghanistan’s peace process at the cost of Pakistan, former military ruler said the US must realise that such a situation would be unacceptable for Islamabad.“Any result of a peace process in Afghanistan in favour of India would not be acceptable to Pakistan and the US must understand this,” said Musharraf, who currently lives in self-exile outside Pakistan.