Torkham-Jalalabad Road

One of the upshots of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led delegation's Kabul visit last week was Pakistan's commitment to start work on the Torkham-Jalalabad Road, and that work has begun. This is one such tangible delivery from Pakistan the outside world wanted as proof that President Ashraf Ghani is right in turning the page on decades-old bitterness between the two neighbours. An inaugural ceremony was held in Jalalabad on Monday to kick-start construction of an additional carriageway along the Torkham-Jalalabad road. To be constructed by Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) the existing road will be widened to 48-foot to turn it into a 4-lane carriageway. The entire cost would be borne by Pakistan. Although, the project had been agreed to some years back, the work did not begin for one or the other reason. No more of the undeliverable commitments made to the Afghan government - that's the crux of Islamabad's pledge to the National Unity Government in Kabul which was conveyed to the Afghan government as prime minister made his first visit along with Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and other senior military officers. Even more important commitment made to the unity government was Pakistan's decision to treat the so-called Afghan insurgents including Taliban as 'terrorists' and to hunt them out on both sides of the common border, making use of shared intelligence. To this effect an agreement was signed between the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate and the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) during that high-level visit. Perhaps, but for some misinformed criticism in Afghan media the ISI would have kept the agreement under wraps. But given the misperception that despite Islamabad's decision to treat Taliban across the board as terrorists their spring offensive is more lethal the Pakistan side had to reveal the nature of the agreement between the two intelligence agencies. According to the ISPR chief's tweet on the matter, the 'MoU signed by ISI and NDS includes intelligence sharing, complementary and co-ordinated intel operations on respective sides'.
Of course, the history of Pak-Afghan relationship cannot be re-written; and, undeniably, it would keep revisiting. But this is also that time comes in the life of nations when they turn the page on history and decide to invent its future. That time seems to have come, essentially thanks to President Ashraf Ghani's determination to change its course. Resonance to him from Pakistan was instant; Pakistan welcomed the change - thanks to the chickens now coming home to roost. For too long it had juggled with the 'good-Taliban bad-Taliban' in pursuit of ever-elusive 'strategic depth', ending up with nothing but all-pervasive instability and insecurity. Unlike his predecessor, the newly-elected unity government leadership in Kabul saw it with open mind and heart and grasped the hand of friendship extended by Islamabad. First things first: it sent packing the entire lot of diplomats and bureaucrats who nurtured anti-Pakistan mindset, and re-fixed its foreign policy focus away from India and onto Pakistan. And sooner than later the pieces of Pak-Afghan jigsaw started falling in their places. For the first time Afghan cadets joined a military academy in Pakistan and for the first time an Afghan chief was the chief guest at the passing-out parade of Pakistan's premier military training school. But this is just the beginning; the history has the nasty knack to revisit. Questions are being asked in Kabul. People ask how come with Pakistan so deeply committed to helping the Afghan government defeat Taliban they are back with a renewed vigour and a sharpened edge. The reply to this is that the Afghan Taliban have lost the unity they had all these years: they are splitting up evident as it was at the recent intra-Afghan dialogue hosted by Qatar. But for Pakistan's strong nudging this dialogue would not have materialised. The faction among them that still remains un-reconciled to the idea of sharing the growing sentiment for national reconciliation is behind this spike in violence to establish its indispensability for the process to succeed. And, quite ironically, what it got in return is added time for the foreign troops to stay put in Afghanistan. There is no hesitation whatsoever on the part of Pakistan to help Ghani-Abdullah unity government effectively put down the scourge of violence in Afghanistan. But history doesn't cut corners; it takes time to change its course.