Former president rules out political comeback

KABUL (Pajhwok): Ex-president Hamid Karzai has ruled out the possibility of staging a political comeback, supporting continuity of the democratic order.

In an interview with an American new channel, Karzai said had played his political role as two-term president. “It would be a failure on my part and on the part of Afghanistan if I were to return.”

He told CNBC new generation of Afghans leaders should serve the country, which must have new presidents and continuity of the political process rather than stagnation.

“My return… would be stagnation, and that’s not good for Afghanistan,” said Karzai, who ruled the post-Taliban country for 13 years.

Karzai spurned as propaganda a claim by American officials and intelligence sources that he was being treated for a bipolar condition because he is a manic-depressive.

“They were wrong. This is an example of how propaganda was conducted… to tarnish my image and weaken me and throw me into insignificance,” he observed.

But such wild insinuations had produced the opposite effect in country, where his popularity with the people had dramatically increased, Karzai continued.

He differed with America’s approach to fighting terrorism, believing a US military was not in the interest of Afghanistan. The mismatch of perceptions kept him from signing the Bilateral Security Agreement with the US.

“I felt that the war on terror that the US had come to Afghanistan to fight was not conducted the way it should have been,” he remarked.

He maintained “The talk was in one direction, but the walk was in another. The talk was towards Pakistan and sanctuaries in Pakistan, but the action was taking place in Afghanistan against civilians.”

PAN Monitor/mud

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