The beginning of the year has not brought with it an easing of relations between Pakistan and its western neighbour. And the sticking point remains the same: Kabul accuses us of harbouring the Afghan Taliban and, above all, the Haqqani Network; while we insist that we have flushed out all such elements from our soil. And so the beat goes on. Thus against this backdrop, we believe it to be a positive sign that the Afghan spy chief — the head of the National Directorate for Security — was among those who visited Pakistan yesterday for talks on bilateral anti-terror cooperation; which may or may not be a euphemism for reading us the riot act once more. Yet in a bid to remain one step ahead of the great game, Islamabad disclosed a day earlier that it had, back in November, extradited a total of 27 militants to Afghanistan; thereby unwittingly lending credence to Kabul’s claims. Sadly, though, this backfired somewhat, as these things usually do, with Afghan media reporting that no handover took place. Be that as it may, now is not the time for this country to go on the defensive; especially not given our plummeting currency with Trump Town. Thus we hope that the state apparatus views the visit as a confidence-building measure of sorts. After all, state-to-state contact is always more fruitful than a one-sided tweet. The trip by the Afghan delegation comes in the wake of recent terror attacks hitting their country; with four major strikes in the last nine days. The most recent being against a military academy in the capital, which killed 11 soldiers and was claimed by ISIS. Just two days earlier, the Taliban targeted an ambulance, again in Kabul, in which more than one hundred people lost their lives. Cross-border security was naturally top of the agenda. Yet so, too, must have been the reported three-member Taliban delegation to Pakistan in the middle of last month; though our Foreign Minister said he wasn’t aware of such a meeting aimed at restarting the Afghan peace process. But then as we all know – just because the civilian leadership doesn’t know about an incoming militant delegation doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen. And if it did, this should similarly be viewed favourably by all sides. Especially, given that the message from the White House has been loud and clear: it is up to Pakistan to get the Taliban back to the negotiating table. The peace process had stalled following a US drone strike that took out the group’s then leader back in May 2016. Though given that he was killed on our soil — we can’t pin the blame entirely on Washington for the interruption of talks. Nevertheless, we hope that those at the helm in Islamabad reminded Kabul that in this ongoing quagmire of farcical proportions that Washington remains responsible for Afghan security. Yet this does not absolve us from doing our part. Meaning, we must ensure that all safe-havens have been flushed out. For if we don’t, we will not have any leverage when it comes to calling on President Ghani to do the same vis-à-vis elements of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that remain within his country’s borders. If both sides cooperate, the future roadmap may not be as intractable as it currently seems. * Published in Daily Times, February 1st 2018.