Musharraf returns home after appealing for peace

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf returned home today after appealing for a UN peacekeeping force and a broad-based government in Afghanistan, where the Taliban movement fell during his absence from the region.

Afghanistan’s northern alliance took the capital Kabul on Tuesday, a development that has been greeted with mixed feelings by Pakistan’s leadership.

Musharraf is a key ally in the United States campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

But Pakistan has also had a long had hostile relations with the northern alliance, and does not want the movement to rule Afghanistan without the participation of other groups, including ethnic Pashtuns.

Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and are also found in large numbers across the border in western Pakistan.

Musharraf said the United Nations should send a peacekeeping force to Afghanistan made up of Muslim nations, adding that Pakistan could contribute.

’’Kabul should remain as a demilitarised city,’’ Musharraf said in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday.

Pakistan was allied with the Taliban until the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. But Musharraf then abandoned the Taliban, which has harboured bin Laden, and sided with the United States.

He has allowed US planes to use four air bases in Pakistan, though the American planes are permitted to carry out only support missions such as search and rescue, not combat operations.

Pro-Taliban Islamic groups in Pakistan vehemently oppose Musharraf’s decision to side with the United States. However, the size and frequency of the demonstrations has declined in recent weeks.

Pakistan is home to more than two million Afghan refugees and peace in Afghanistan would lead to their repatriation.

On his six-day trip, Musharraf attended the UN General Assembly meeting in New York and also met US President George W. Bush.

He also visited France, Britain, Iran and Turkey.