After Taliban attacks, Afghan leader takes heat for seeking Pakistan’s help

KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, humiliated over the summer by the collapse of his bold overture to Pakistan to revive peace talks with the Taliban, has met a barrage of criticism at home this month for his new effort to engage Pakistan in the peace process, just when Taliban forces based there have staged a rash of attacks across Afghanistan.
Critics have painted Ghani as kowtowing to his hosts when he was in Islamabad last week, acting out of weakness as his 16-month-old administration flounders on many fronts and bowing to international pressure to make a deal with the neighboring nuclear power that many Afghans think seeks to dominate their country by violence and deception.