Pakistan has played active and negative role in Afghan affairs for decades: US Congressional report

For decades, Pakistan has played an active but negative role in Afghanistan, a Congressional report has said, asserting that Islamabad wants a weak government in Kabul.

In its latest report on Afghanistan, the independent and bipartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) identified Pakistan as the most important neighbour of Afghanistan.

Pakistan, it said, has played an active, and by many accounts, a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.

"Pakistan's security services maintain ties to Afghan insurgent groups, most notably the Haqqani Network, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) that has become an official, semiautonomous component of the Taliban," CRS, which periodically prepares reports on issues of importance for Congressmen for them to make informed decisions, said.

Afghan leaders, along with US military commanders, attribute much of the insurgency's power and longevity either directly or indirectly to Pakistani support, the report said, adding that President Donald Trump has accused Pakistan of "housing the very terrorists that we are fighting".

US officials have long identified militant safe havens in Pakistan as a threat to Afghanistan's security, though some Pakistani officials dispute the charge, it said