Daily Times

Notwithstanding strained relations with India and Afghanistan and the collusion between the two to malign and isolate Pakistan, the latter remains committed to continue its efforts not only to mend fences with them but also to forge mutually beneficial strong economic ties with them. The civil and military leadership is unanimous in regards to pursuing that course against all odds. That resolve was reiterated in a high level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 3 December which was also attended by the COAS. The meeting discussed foreign policy options to achieve those objectives besides reviewing external and internal security threats and the responses required to tackle them as well CPEC related issues.

The Prime minister was right on money to reiterate that peaceful co-existence, mutual respect and economically integrated region must be the shared objective of the countries of the region. Pakistan has been earnestly pursing this new narrative without the desired reciprocity. Through bilateral and multilateral forums like QCG, QCCG it has been playing its role to promote Afghan-led-Afghan-owned reconciliation in Afghanistan and was instrumental to the first ever inter-face between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But unfortunately that process could not be taken forward due to the revelation about the death of Mullah Omar.

But instead of appreciating the efforts being made by Pakistan for promoting peace in Afghanistan, the Afghan President has been crying hoarse from every convenient roof-top to decry them and has been accusing Pakistan of providing sanctuaries to the militants on its soil who carry out attacks in Afghanistan. He does so with a ritualistic fervor whenever an attack happens in Afghanistan, Pakistan has invariably denied these allegations citing its zero tolerance against terrorist outfits and indiscriminate action against them through operation Zarb-e-Azb. The Afghan President, of late has forged an alliance with India to malign and isolate Pakistan. His joining hands with India at the Heart of Asia conference was highly unfriendly act.

The fact of the matter is that Afghanistan has failed to extend reciprocal cooperation to Pakistan with regard to dealing with the phenomenon of terrorism. Its territory has been and is being used for attacks within Pakistan. Peace in Afghanistan cannot be attained without involvement of Pakistan. It is an ultimate reality. It is pertinent to point out that the US commanders in Afghanistan have repeatedly endorsed Pakistan’s claims of indiscriminate action against terrorist outfits including Haqqanis. General John F Campbell in a testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October observed “Senior Pakistan military officers have repeatedly declared that they can no long discriminate between good and bad Taliban terrorists. They appear to be taking meaningful actions to back up their words”. He also emphasized indispensability of Pakistan for solution to the Afghan conundrum and stressed the need for removal of the permeating mistrust between the two countries before venturing to nudge the process of reconciliation with Taliban.

Apart from operation Zarb-e-Azb, Pakistan has also taken the right step of strengthening border management to check cross border movement. Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, a think tank has endorsed this step by saying “The latest move by Pakistan is appreciated. Afghanistan should also welcome this as an effectively managed border equally takes care of the security issues faced by her. The internal and external threats faced by Pakistan from unauthorized crossing of the Durand Line unequivocally call for effective border management”.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have 2500 Km long porous border, therefore, Afghanistan would be well advised to take similar action on its side of the border if it really was interested in checking the cross border movement of the terrorists, rather than hurling unsubstantiated allegations against Pakistan. It must also take action against the TTP representatives based in Afghanistan who are orchestrating terrorist attacks within Pakistan from there. It may be pointed out that before the commencement of operation Zarb-e-Azb Pakistan had asked Afghanistan to make sure that the terrorist fleeing from North Waziristan do not cross over to Afghanistan but no effective arrangements were made by her to prevent that from happening.

As pointed out by the US general it is imperative to remove the ambience of mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That role can best be played by the US. The other thing that the US needs and must do is to keep India out of the equation and put pressure on her to restrain RAW from sponsoring across the border attacks. Discouraging Indo-Afghan collaboration against Pakistan is also necessary as it is fraught with great dangers and might consign the region to perennial instability. Pakistan does not mind development of bilateral relations between Afghanistan and India but will not and should not allow the two countries to forge sinister alliance to undermine here interests in the region and efforts to fight terrorism. The US must recognize the ground realities and should not assign greater role to India in Afghanistan and keep Pakistan out of the loop. The revival of the trilateral dialogue between Afghanistan, India and US for finding a solution to the Afghan conundrum will actually further complicate the situation and it also runs counter to the objectives of quadrilateral initiative.

Pakistan has the highest stake in peace in Afghanistan and would be the last country to even entertain the thought to destabilizing Afghanistan at its own peril. The Afghan leadership needs to understand that. Peace and stability in Afghanistan means peace in Pakistan. Both the countries have suffered enormously at the hands of terrorists and do have a strong common cause to make concerted efforts to ward off the lurking dangers. The scourge of terrorism and other threats make it absolutely imperative for the two countries to forge impregnable unity against these challenges and not allow the forces inimical to this cooperation sabotage the amity between them. That course is dictated by the historic and geographical realities and centuries old religious and cultural bonds between the two countries.

Pakistan has also made positive overtures to India to normalize relations between the two countries and to re-start the suspended dialogue for resolving disputes between them including the core issue of Kashmir. But the Modi government has repudiated all these efforts and instead adopted a more aggressive policy to aggravate the animosity between the two countries, in complete disregard to the fact that its belligerent stance could also have very serious repercussion for India itself. Both countries need peaceful co-existence to ensure peace and security in the region providing an enabling environment to both of them to pursue their economic objectives and forging regional connectivity for shared economic prosperity. Pakistan, India and Afghanistan living in peace, is inevitable for them. To bring it about is no doubt a challenging task for the leadership of the three countries but not impossible provided they act with sincerity of purpose.

The writer is a retired diplomat, a freelance columnist, and a member of the visiting faculty of the Riphah Institute of Media Sciences, Riphah International University Islamabad. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com