Washington, Oct 5 : With the signing of a strategic pact between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the focus has shifted to what role India can play in Afghanistan in the days to come.

The new alliance comes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States trade barbs over Islamabad’s alleged support of the Haqqani network, which reportedly operates from the North Waziristan Agency.

Moeed Yusuf, the South Asia Adviser at the United States Institute of Peace, said that Karzai reaching out to India might lead to a paradigm shift.

“Perhaps Karzai has given up on Pakistan,” The Express Tribune quoted Yusuf, as saying.

In the face of such moves, “Pakistan isn’t going to sit by quietly, because of the India-Pakistan relationship,” he added.

“At this juncture, the visit will cause great heartburn in Islamabad,” the paper quoted Saeed Naqvi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi, as saying.

“That is unfortunate from the Indian perspective because anything achieved in the visit will be seen by Pakistan as an insult,” he added.

Sadanand Dhume, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and research fellow at conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, said that it would be naive to suggest that there is nothing political.

“The method that’s been used [by India] has been development but politics matters. India has a stake in Afghanistan; it has a stake in Afghanistan’s stability and it not turning into a terrorist sanctuary,” Dhume pointed out.

Although, given the current state of US-Pakistan relations, the question surfaces whether the US is using India as leverage, and whether it can ditch Pakistan and partner with India to play a role in Afghanistan’s future, the paper said.

“Pakistan’s bad behaviour, in the eyes of the US and Afghanistan, is going to push these countries to India because of India’s role as an emerging power and its diplomatic and development presence in Afghanistan. It’s the most likely actor to kind of take over as the US withdraws troops. Obviously, this is of great concern to Pakistan,” said Shamila Chaudhary, a former director of the White House National Security Council on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and now an analyst at the Eurasia Group.

However, the Afghan president may have gone too far, cautioned Yusuf, saying: “I think, looking ahead, Karzai will have to reconnect with Pakistan. He’ll shift back to the middle because he also realises that he can’t alienate Pakistan.” (ANI)