PRESIDENT Karzais latest visit to Islamabad was ostensibly to explore every possible avenue of friendship and cooperation with Pakistan, as he himself declared. Unfortunately, for Pakistan there has historically been a hostility from its neighbour Afghanistan regardless who has been in power in both countries. Despite this, Pakistan opened its country to the refugees fleeing from Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet invasion. And Pakistan has had to suffer the fallout from all that happens in this northwestern neighbours territory - be it the Soviet invasion and the ensuing US-led war or the post-9/11 war launched by the US ostensibly against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but which has come to grip Pakistan as well with all the repercussions now being suffered by the people of Pakistan. President Karzai has come to seek the handing over of the Afghan Taliban leadership caught by the Pakistanis in Karachi, since he feels as Afghans they should be returned to their country. Yet, on the issue of Afghan refugees, he was not as forthcoming on the point of Afghans going back to their country. He was also reticent on the fate of similar Pakistanis now being held in Afghan special jails and at Bagram in US custody. In fact, to listen to President Karzai was to get an impression that Pakistan was the wrongdoer and has now been compelled to alter course and fall in line with Afghanistan On the issue of India again while he declared that his country must ensure that its soil was not used against its neighbours he also refused to accept that India was using Afghan territory for aiding and abetting militants in Pakistan. He was equally adamant that there were no Indian military personnel in Afghanistan. Karzai went on to add that Pakistan has to respect Afghanistan as a sovereign state and therefore accept its right to have relations with India as it sees fit But unless Afghanistan can overcome its India fixation and genuinely move towards a new more positive approach to Pakistan, relations between the two countries can never improve beyond the superficial. The one point that Karzai was vocally public about was the admission of growing differences with the US, especially over the pace of the process of reconciliation with and reintegration of the Taliban. He also distanced himself from a widening US perception that Pakistans arrest of Taliban leaders was simply to undermine Karzais peace efforts with the Taliban. Yet the hint of lingering suspicions towards Pakistan remain even as he claims he is here to start a new chapter with Pakistan and asked the press to give a positive perspective on this visit. The problem is that unless one can see a real change in approach towards Pakistan from the Afghan side, suspicions on the Pakistani side will also linger on. Without concrete actions on points of concern for Pakistan, it would be foolish to simply accept at face value Mr Karzais glib diplomacy.