Daily Times

The flurry of high-profile visits to Pakistan following the fall of Kabul was expected, because it is the most natural vantage point to keep an eye on what’s happening in Afghanistan. But the regional spymasters’ summit, hosted in Islamabad by DG ISI General Faiz Hameed, was the first of its kind. And it goes to prove two very important points. One, Afghanistan is clearly the number-one item on everybody’s agenda; and that not just includes countries in the immediate region. That is why the CIA chief was also in Islamabad just the other day, to discuss his country’s face-saving strategy no doubt after the drubbing and dishonourable discharge that it received at the hands of the victorious Taliban.

Two, Pakistan is now not only the central player in this game but also the most serious and mature one. Indian media outlets, quite typically, tried to spin the ISI chief’s recent visit to Kabul the wrong way, trying to create the impression that Pakistan was now allegedly trying to take direct control of proceedings. But it was for good reason that practically nobody in the international community, not even the more controversial media outlets, took Delhi’s warnings at face value. And in just a couple of days everything became clear. The ISI chief in fact first chose to get first-hand knowledge of all that was happening in the neighbouring country, then upon his return he invited counterparts from Russia, China, Iran, and a number of central Asian states to bring everybody else up to speed as well.

This problem is very clearly going to require a regional solution. And if nobody in these parts is willing to welcome American into the debate about the way forward, it is Washington’s own fault. The Pakistani government has behaved very wisely because nobody knows better than this country just what happens when America accomplishes its mission and leaves this region without giving it much thought. That is why Islamabad has taken the lead in preventing a repeat of last time, which resulted in a full-scale civil war in Afghanistan; the consequences of which are still playing out. Now that foreign ministers of countries that surround Afghanistan have met in Islamabad, followed by a spymasters’ huddle in the same city, it naturally follows then that heads of state must also be preparing to exchange top level ideas about the regional situation sooner rather than later. *