Islamabad: Pakistan's powerful military chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is "manipulating" the government and parliament to prevent them from changing their policy on restive Pak-Afghan border, a top French official believes.
According to a secret US diplomatic cable dated dated January 22, 2010 disclosed by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks and published in Dawn newspaper, head of the French government's inter-agency Afghanistan-Pakistan cell Jasmine Zernini told American officials that although General Kayani had "learned the lesson of Musharraf" and was staying behind the scenes.
But, she felt he was manipulating the government and parliament, including to prevent change on Pakistan's policy towards. FATA along the Afghan border, and also to stir up controversy regarding the Kerry-Lugar bill."
In the same cable, Mariot Leslie, the Director General, Defence and Intelligence of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government expressed satisfaction that China had "dumped" Pakistan in the Conference on Disarmament which in her opinion was a "good sign."
The dismissive attitude towards Pakistan is, however, not limited to Western governments. In another cable dated December 21, 2009, Egyptian Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi pointedly noted that "any country where the military became engaged in 'internal affairs' was doomed to have lots of problems."
In a secret cable dated January 23, 2010, a senior Saudi intelligence official is quoted as telling a US official that "Saudi Arabia viewed the Afghan Taliban as largely under the control of Pakistan" and that "the Afghan Taliban needed support to be able to become more independent of Pakistan.
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