Whatever political and diplomatic divergences may have frustrated an amiable Pakistani-Afghan bilateralism, one thing the two neighbours share is the unrelenting incidence of terrorism. In both countries every second week or so scores of people lose their lives or are maimed at the hands of terrorists. It happened again this past Monday in Lahore. A huge blast caused by a suicide bomber killed 26, injuring 51. The responsibility for the carnage was claimed by the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. In Kabul, a car bomb struck a bus carrying government employees and killed 26 and injured 41. The responsibility for the carnage was claimed by the Afghan Taliban. Both Kabul and Islamabad may nurture a host of conflicting political and diplomatic interests; what they cannot differ on is the value of human life. Is there a way out of this common threat to life? Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has volunteered to play a part. He has offered to help Afghanistan eliminate terrorists safe havens in its border areas-as Pakistan has done on its own side. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan "are victims of terrorism and will continue to suffer if these actors are able to use Afghanistan's territory with impunity," he said. These badlands, inhibited as they are by the terrorists who fled successive military operations by Pakistani forces, are beyond Kabul's control. More so now that the US-led coalition has shut down shop in Afghanistan, leaving space to be filled by what the general referred to as "regional actors and hostile agencies." The emerging situation demands direct, and in-depth, contacts between Kabul and Islamabad at the civil and military levels. And the connectivity between the two can begin with a joint military operation in the border areas.
And from the Trump administration's perspective, there would be no victory in Afghanistan without Pakistan's support. That admission comes from no less a figure than the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee's General Joseph Dunford. He also says the United States cannot be successful in Afghanistan, as it hasn't been in the past, "unless we have a higher degree of cooperation from Pakistan." Such a perspective puts paid to the anti-Pakistan lobbies in Washington under whose pressure Pakistan's due reimbursement of $50 million was forfeited. In fact, there is a growing realization among the American military leadership that the two sides should remain engaged. But for that to happen there has to be reciprocity between the two sides. Pakistan's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan is beyond any doubt, the 'do-more' chant notwithstanding. In fact, as Senator Mushahid Hussain told a think tank in Washington "The US wants to scapegoat Pakistan for its failures in Afghanistan." As a US delegation arrives here early next month to discuss the Trump administration's new strategy for South Asia with Pakistani officials, let us hope that issues like the ongoing intifada in Occupied Kashmir would also be on the table for discussion.
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