Afghan leader seeks Pakistani politicians' help

ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 (Reuters) Afghan President Hamid Karzai has written to influential ethnic Pashtun politicians in Pakistan asking for their support to stem a growing Taliban insurgency.

Karzai, a Pashtun himself, has sent letters to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of the opposition in Pakistan's National Assembly and a leading pro-Taliban cleric, and to Pashtun nationalist leader Asfandayar Wali Khan, urging them to help restore peace in southern Afghanistan.

''He has asked me to use my influence to cope with the situation in eastern and southeastern parts of Afghanistan,'' Rehman told Reuters today.

''I have not yet responded to his letter and will do so after consulting my party leadership.'' Despite the presence of almost 40,000 NATO and U S-led troops in Afghanistan, thc country is suffering the worst period of violence since the Taliban was ousted from power by U S-backed forces in late 2001.

Rehman heads his own faction of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a party of Islamic clerics, which is part of the government in both North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, the two Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan.

His party has influence among madrasas, or Islamic schools, that the Taliban movement sprang out of in the early 1990s.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been blaming each other for the growing challenge mounted by insurgents in the Pashtun belt straddling their long and porous border.

More than 3,000 people have been killed so far this year, including 150 foreign soldiers, and critics often refer to Karzai as the ''mayor of Kabul'' because of his government's lack of control over the rest of the country.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has warned that the insurgency could turn into ''a peoples' war'' unless Karzai, wins over the Pashtuns, and both governments fear ethnic nationalism could fuel ideas of a ''Pashtunistan'' state.

TRIBAL JIRGAS Karzai, and Musharraf, key allies of the United States in its war on terrorism, last month agreed to call tribal gatherings or jirgas on both sides of the border to win support against the Taliban, but no dates have been fixed.

Khan, head of the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP), said Karazi wrote to him and spoke with him yesterday.

''Right now two forces are operating in the region. One is promoting war, hatred and isolation while the other is trying for peace and harmony,'' Khan told Reuters.

''We are in the latter camp and I have assured Karzai that we are ready to play our role in making the jirga successful.'' Pakistan has already started calling jirgas in semi-autonomous tribal areas to counter Taliban influence.

Last month, a peace pact was signed at a jirga in North Waziristan and similar accords are expected in neighbouring South Waziristan and Bajaur, another tribal region to the northeast.

REUTERS PDM BS1509