Daily Times

Pakistan has its idioms mixed up. Instead of mending fences with its western neighbour — it is building them, literally and unilaterally. Afghanistan is not taking this lying down.

Pakistan has decided to go it alone and close parts of the most sensitive areas of the shared border with Afghanistan. The COAS has identified Mohmand and Bajur agencies as posing the most serious threats in terms of Afghan militants crossing over to this side of the border. Afghanistan has responded by denouncing the move as being out of the question.

All of this raises two serious points: firstly, what has prompted the Pakistani move and secondly, why now?

The key to both lies in the upcoming peace talks on Afghanistan, scheduled for next month. Pakistan wants to affect a shift in narrative before these take place. Fed up as being forever cast as the region’s bad boy who wants anything but to give peace a chance — Islamabad has decided to put another brick in the wall, as it were. Meaning, it wants to shift responsibility for Afghan militants squarely on its neighbour’s shoulders. An added bonus comes in the form of taking a dig at India, whom it routinely accuses of being in cahoots with the Kabul government in conspiring against it.

But more than anything, Pakistan is keen to demonstrate that if it can take control of the border situation then Afghanistan has no excuse for thus far being unable to do the same. After all, it is not Pakistan that has been guarded by thousands upon thousands of international forces and continues to be home to residual American forces.

Nevertheless, it is hoped that the border fencing is a largely symbolic gesture. That the Army is talking tough to prove a point. For ‘sealing’ so-called high threat zones does not avoid the question of whether Afghan militants are on this side of the border. And if they are — then what is to be done with them?

Now that Pakistan has got its message across by talking tough — the real test begins. It must be prepared to talk peace in Moscow. *