Time for Pakistan to walk the talk on Afghanistan

Time for Pakistan to walk the talk on Afghanistan
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
Published a day ago
WHATSAPP
1 COMMENT
PRINT

Photo courtesy AFP

If there is no peace and stability in Afghanistan, there will be no peace and stability in Pakistan. Afghanistan has suffered from external interference and intervention of one kind or another throughout its history. It continues to be challenged by repeated interference today.

Pakistan has a choice. It can either work with the government in Kabul and with Afghanistan’s other neighbours to strengthen the foundations of peace and stability in the fractured and war-torn country — or it can join in the “scramble for Afghanistan”, by seeking to stake out a maximum share of external influence in Afghanistan for itself.

Pakistan talks one policy, but walks the other. The former option – working towards peace and stability – is a positive-sum strategy and can be a real winner for Pakistan. Given the build-up of mutual mistrust over several decades, this option will, of course, not be easy. It will take effort and time. However, the latter option – scrambling for maximum influence or “strategic depth” or hegemony in Afghanistan, if only to minimise the influence of a perennial adversary, India – has been and will remain a zero-sum mug’s game for Pakistan.

Nevertheless, given the perversity of our political and decision-making processes, we have consistently opted for the mug’s game. As a result, we frittered away the enormous Afghan goodwill that Pakistan had accumulated during the Soviet occupation. After the Soviet defeat and withdrawal, we (wittingly or unwittingly) unleashed a ruinous civil war and imposed a barbaric and medieval Taliban upon the hapless Afghan people.

Our Afghan “experts” (those who cogently, if not credibly, articulate the interests and preferences of elite and kinetic institutions) have sought to explain away policies that fatally undermine our image and standing among the Afghan people — Pakhtun and non-Pakhtun alike. Our Afghan policy, moreover, is India-centric and, accordingly, ignores Afghan realities.

We simply deny responsibility for cross-border flows of weapons and jihadis into Afghanistan, which is undermining the security of the elected regime in Kabul that we recognise. Instead, we accuse Kabul of doing the same to Pakistan at India’s behest. Moreover, we have complicated and contradictory policies towards the Afghan Taliban, as we support and oppose them simultaneously.

As a result, the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China) has, for the time being, been replaced as the main external influence on Kabul by a trilateral group comprising Afghanistan, Iran and India.

This article was originally published in the Herald's February 2017 issue. To read more subscribe to the Herald in print.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.

I Think its in Afghanistan interest to work with Pakistan and not india ..

How can Pakistan favor Afghanistan when they are playing in the hands of india ...

Afghan people need to understand that half of thier population think Pakistan as their home and only a kabul gov need to come straight .. not to mention some internet warriors who got free computers from someone

First thing First, afghan people need to remove northern alliance gov, they have their own agenda which is dictated by USA and India
It should be based on Afghan common man ...

If they do not agree then Pakistan, they should not use Pakistan for their imports as well, they can use other countries like iran, etc etc but not Pakistan .

Well balanced article good read after so called desperate surgical strikes across the Afghan's border and shelling civilian for the sake of photo proves is outrages and counter productive. Such desperate actions compel more people join these terror factories.

Regards,
Jailer

This article is a big sticky smelly load of bullshit, it completely ignores the geo political and intel ground realities.

If Afghans want peace in their country they must kick out whites and blackies from their country

What a dimwit. The quality of people in the Foreign Service continues to stun...

The only future for Afghanistan is the peace deal / power sharing agreement with the various insurgent factions (Afghan Taliban, Haqqani, etc.) and extraction of all NATO forces that Pakistan has been advocating since the beginning.

What democratic/peaceful pillars of government is he referring to in Afghanistan --- warlords like Dostum, imported leaders like Ghani or drug barons in Parliament?

Why can't people like this do simple math and compare pre- and post-invasion terrorism stats in Pakistan (e.g. there were no suicide bombings before the US invasion) and then asks themselves: which form of government in Afghanistan is better for Pakistan's security?

"As a result, we frittered away the enormous Afghan goodwill that Pakistan had accumulated during the Soviet occupation. After the Soviet defeat and withdrawal, we (wittingly or unwittingly) unleashed a ruinous civil war and imposed a barbaric and medieval Taliban upon the hapless Afghan people."

What nonsense. Afghanistan as a state has and will always mistrust Pakistan, due to their irredentist policies i.e. claiming half of Pakistan's territory as theirs. Even during the so called Pakistani puppet regime of the Taliban, the country never accepted the border with Pakistan. What "goodwill" is he talking about? Him and his generation have deluded the general Pakistani into thinking Afghans are our brothers and have positive views about us. The country's core existence is centered around the idea of greater Afghanistan, based on a historical empire that existed centuries ago. Such countries cannot be rationalized with.

The perfect example is Germany. Post WW2 it accepted the reality that Alsace-Lorraine was and will remain French. The traditional rivals (France and Germany) subsequently turned from worst enemies to close friends. This is a possibility for Afghanistan as well, but they have their heads stuck in the sand like ostriches. Countries like that are always in self destruct mode. Better to maintain a distance, than get close to them.