Musharraf accused the Afghan govt of "doing nothing to fight terrorism" and of "losing the war" against the Taliban, in remarks published on Thursday.
MADRID: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf accused the Afghan government of "doing nothing to fight terrorism" and of "losing the war" against the Taliban, in remarks published here on Thursday.
"Those who do nothing against terrorism, like Karzai, are also the ones who criticise those who are fighting, like us," Musharraf told Spanish daily El Pais during a visit to Spain.
He also denied accusations from Karzai that Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar were in Pakistan, saying the two men were "probably" holed up in Afhganistan.
"Those who say that the ISI (Pakistani military intelligence) helps the Taliban because we want a weak Afghanistan are liars," Musharraf said.
"They say these things to hide their shame because they are losing the war against the Taliban."
The comments set the stage for a stormy meeting between Musharraf and Karzai, two key allies of the US, in Turkey next week.
Afghan and US officials have blamed Pakistan for failing to prevent Taliban-led militants from attacking US, Nato and Afghan forces in Afghanistan from their bases in Pakistan's tribal areas along their 2,400-kilometre common border.
Later on Thursday in the southern Spanish city of Granada, Musharraf defended his country's record.
"Pakistan is the country which has done the maximum in Afghanistan against Al-Qaeda, that is going the maximum against the Taliban," he said during an address to students.
"Yet it is misperceived by those who have no understanding of the area and who have no other idea or strategy. They don't understand the environment, they have no strategy but they criticize, they sit in drawing rooms and they criticise," he added.
Islamabad has 80,000 troops stationed on the Afghan-Pakistani border and has also started putting up a fence on parts of its northwest frontier to stop Taliban fighters sneaking across.
Kabul opposes the fence because it disputes the current border with Pakistan but Islamabad says it has no choice if it is to avoid repeated calls by the international community to stop Taliban rebels based in Pakistan from mounting attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan was one of three countries that recognised the harsh Taliban regime in the late 1990s, but later supported the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda.
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