Pak-Afghan relations

A cricket match at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. Emotions run high in the supporting crowd. And then we see chairs and bottles being hurled. Security police intervening to manage hurling howling, hitting spectators out of the ground. No, it is not an India-Pakistan match but Pakistan vs Afghanistan match. These horrible scenes are an indication of how relations between the two countries have become unbearably painful over a period of time. This was just a cricket match but it revealed deep and disturbing underlying currents of hatred and animosity. While our focus is normally on the cross-border fights on the Line of Control clashes between India and Pakistan, the unattended public discontent in Afghanistan has and will be a main source of unrest and violence in both countries.
How is it possible that two countries that share borders, history, religion, geography, language, consumer tastes and trade potential can be the bitterest of enemies? This is a story that is unreal but real. Mistakes on both sides of the border have created this huge trust chasm that has helped create a regional block of common enemies of Pakistan. The seeds were sowed by the British Empire. Right after partition Afghan authorities wanted to get Pakistan to abandon the border along the Durand Line and withdraw from the ownership of the eastern Pashtun territories to Pakistan. It was however diluted by Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan for supply of goods through the port of Karachi.
This truce lasted till the 1970s when the secession of East Pakistan gave ideas to some political factions in Afghanistan to team up with India to support such movements in Baluchistan and the then NWFP. However, the real confrontation came in the 1980s when Pakistan's dictator Ziaul Haq's catastrophic rule started. The support of Afghan Mujahideen funded by American dollars to fight Soviets out of Afghanistan started a disastrous era in both countries that has till date become a destruction weapon on both sides of the border.
As if that was not enough, in the Musharraf era, Pakistan sided by the Americans on attacking Afghanistan as an ally in the War on Terror. There are three fundamental mistakes Pakistan made in its foreign policy and national security agenda. The involvement in the Soviet War, the support to extremist groups and the participation in the War on Terror. This has fundamentally destroyed the level of trust between the two neighbours, created terrorism within the country, destroyed our economy and helped form a common enmity bloc against Pakistan within the region.
Afghanistan in many ways is more dangerous as an enemy than India. Pakistan has almost 3 million refugees in Pakistan that can be misused for many infiltrations. The border geography with Afghanistan makes terrorist movement, trade smuggling and many illegal operations very difficult to man and control. This has been exploited by the Indian/Israel nexus in Afghanistan. The common cause of "fighting the war on terror" has made India and Israel a weapons supplier and buyer partner to Afghanistan. Imtiaz Gul, a senior security analyst on Afghanistan, says: "40% of all the high-tech surveillance gear manufactured by Israel for defence purposes is found in India. India has spent over $10 billion on purchasing surveillance gear from Israel till date. Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has assured India of its support in its war against terror. History reveals that the two countries are strategically aligned."
The Pak Afghan trust deficit has also affected trade. The Pakistan and Afghan trade potential is estimated to be $10 billion, but it has plummeted to $ 1.7 billion due to the policies of the governments on both sides. The recent blockage of thousands of containers at the Torkham border crossing has created huge difficulties for traders. Political relations have dipped and so have economic ties. That is why the Pak-Afghan trade or relations can never really be dealt with as a bilateral level. India, the US and China are all important players to either block or facilitate this process. The recent visit of President Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan is important to build trust at levels but not enough. Pakistan has a great opportunity to cash in on the opportunity. Pakistan has never been placed better to better its strategic regional stature. Peace dialogue with Afghan Taliban has been an old proposed solution of the present government. The Prime Minster of Pakistan was an early supporter of dialogue and had earned the wrath of the US, Afghan government and even other political parties within Pakistan. With time his stance has become the only solution to regional stability. That is why it is important that this window of opportunity that is now present should not be wasted. The main focus for Pakistan should be to consolidate its regional stature by doing the following three things:
1. Change Pak-US relations from lose - Win to Win-Win- American Foreign policy wants an early yet stable exit from Afghanistan. Pakistan has and should continue its role as a major influencer in the peace talks to be held in Qatar. The forthcoming visit to US by the PM is another step towards regaining its geo political status. Pakistan also needs to take this opportunity to impress upon Germany its enhanced role since Germany is one of the main sponsors of these talks. This will facilitate negotiations and international support in the EU.
2. Take the Afghan government into confidence - The recent visit by President Ashraf Ghani was a restart of a stalled relationship. However more ministerial visits from Pakistan and Afghanistan will slowly but surely help to bridge the gap.
3. Public engagement at all levels - The Lahore process conference held recently at Bhurban hosted 57 groups from Afghanistan and was a good step in creating reconnect and harmony amongst all stakeholders. More importantly, the image of Pakistan as a country that has been the most compassionate in terms of housing the largest inflow of refugees in the history of the world needs to be internationally and cross-country wise projected. In this respect this year 40 years of hosting refugees is being celebrated by UNCHR and Pakistan needs to ensure that its unprecedented hospitality, compassion and generosity are globally and bilaterally acknowledged and recognized.
It is time to move forward. It is time for people of both countries to see models of developed countries and learn lessons from them. For the Afghani cricket supporters at Leeds they just need to see how harbouring war and animosity destroyed the very countries they live in now and how peace and brotherhood have developed these countries to become powerful global players. After all the very game that the Afghan supporters were getting violent over was learned in Pakistan and taught to them by Pakistanis. History needs to be learned from, not repeated.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])