Daily Times

A delegation of Pakistani politicians has met the Afghan leadership in Kabul to further cooperation against the many threats to both nations. The Pakistani politicians belong to the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Qaumi Watan Party and Awami National Party, all Pashtun parties. These politicians and their parties have long been supportive of Afghanistan, sympathetic to the governments there and the situation on the ground. So far, this is the first delegation that has been invited to Kabul by the new government of President Ashraf Ghani, who has vowed to work with Pakistan to overcome the terror threat and improve diplomatic relations. For its part, Afghanistan does feel threatened by the Afghan militants based in these Pashtun areas in Pakistan, areas these politicians represent. President Ashraf Ghani has shown his willingness to cooperate and this meeting seems to be one of the steps he has taken since assuming office. He perhaps realises that without such efforts, the threats emanating from Pakistani soil will never really go away.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a torturous relationship. There are safe havens on both sides of the border with the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network based in relative safety here in Pakistan and reports suggesting that Mullah Fazlullah — the leader of the Pakistani Taliban — has fled to Afghanistan. This meeting has seen both sides insisting upon stepping up cooperation to eliminate the terror threat and increase people-to-people contact. Where Hamid Karzai’s bluster failed, President Ghani looks to promote diplomacy. President Ghani is of the opinion that both countries face the same enemy, an enemy that has an internal nexus, with the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban cooperating and strengthening each other’s forces. He believes that if the gaps are not plugged between the two countries, both stand to be ravaged.

This is all positive and this first meeting is a step in the right direction. However, we need to see parties and their leaders not considered sympathisers of Afghanistan interacting with the Afghan leadership so as to really get down to the nitty gritty of these cooperation efforts. It is those who have created and protected the Taliban that need to be called for meetings and it is with them the Afghan government needs to talk when it visits. The military establishment has grudgingly come to the realisation — after the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar — that the demons it mollycoddled need to be exorcised. It is through them that the Afghan government needs to reach an internal political resolution with its opponents. Only when all forms of the Taliban, good and bad, are dealt a decisive blow will there be peace in both countries and the region. It is hoped this is the first in a long line of political dialogues aimed at defusing the situation once and for all. *