Chill in Pakistan and Afghanistan Ties
Abdul Hadi Mayar
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have registered another low as both countries have again resorted to blame game. Last week, the Afghan Foreign Ministry announced cancellation of the visit of an eleven-member group of Afghan National Army, which was scheduled to take part in joint military exercise with Pakistan Army in Balochistan. Similarly, Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry alleged that hideouts of Pakistani Taliban were present in Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan.
The present chill in bilateral relations between the two neighbours comes in the wake of the recent upward trend, not only in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan’s relations with the United States and its NATO allies, characterizing melting of snow emanating from the Salala incident. As the US State Department regretted the Salala occurring - in which a number of Pakistani solders were killed and injured - Pakistan opened NATO supply and a number of interactions ensued between the United States and Pakistan. It was after these exchanges that Pakistan released a number of Afghan Taliban leaders and announced to play role in talks between the Afghan government and Taliban.
Later, British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted talks between President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in London last month. Addressing a joint press conference after the trilateral summit, Zardari and Karzai promised to work for restoration of the peace in Afghanistan within six months. Both sides pledged to take all necessary steps for the purpose. They announced their support for opening of Taliban office in Doha and urged the Taliban to take steps for holding talks with Afghan government.
President Zardari and President Karzai also announced that they would soon sign an agreement to bolster their mutual economic and security relations. David Cameron said that during the meeting, he witnessed an ‘unprecedented level of cooperation.’ The British prime minister also made a phone call to both the presidents late last month discussing the follow-up of the London meeting and urging both countries to take steps for improving bilateral relations and restoration of peace in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has always experienced the bitter spillover impact of the turmoil in Afghanistan and it fully understands that it cannot escape the aftermath of turbulence in Afghanistan once the US-NATO forces are withdrawn from the country. However, its proclaimed position is that it supports an ‘Afghan-led’ and ‘Afghan-owned’ peace process in Afghanistan. For their part, neither the Afghan government nor the United States and NATO have ever made any objection to Pakistan’ stated position. Despite that, suspicions prevail between the two sides.
While the Afghan side smells a lackluster response from Pakistan with regard to the Afghan peace process, the Pakistani side is complaining about presence of the hideouts of Swat Taliban leaders in southeastern Afghanistan. When the Kabul government announced the arrest of Moulvi Faqir Muhammad, the chief of Bajaur Agency-based Pakistani Taliban, Islamabad earnestly demanded his hand over to Pakistan. The demand appeared plausible, particularly in the wake of its gesture of releasing Afghan Taliban detainees on the demand of the US and the Afghan governments. However, the Afghan government is yet to give any response to the demand.
It is against this background that General Joseph Dunford, the ISAF commander in Afghanistan, visited Pakistan last week and held talks with Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani discussing issues pertaining to military relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan and restoring their trust. General Kayani reiterated Pakistan’s call for ending border violations from Afghanistan side.
As regards the border violations and rocket attacks along the Kunar-Bajaur border point, both Kabul and Islamabad have been accusing each other for them. Pakistan has since long been complaining that Kunar and Nuristan-based Swat Taliban are entering Pakistan’s Bajaur Agency and attacking and abducting Pakistani security personnel. Similarly, Fazlullah Wahidi, the governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, alleged last week that 50 rockets had been fired from across the Pakistani border.
Earlier, Afghan officials had claimed that people in the border areas of Kunar Province had migrated from their houses due to heavy rocket and mortar firing from across the Pakistani border. While none of the two countries can have any point to make through such attacks, the militants on both sides of the border can have a real stake in these activities. Just recently, an article appearing in a Peshawar-based Pashto newspaper blamed such activities on Indian agents. It will be biased if any wrong doing of the sort is linked with India without any proof, the suspicion makes sense that militants operating in border regions might wish to keep relations between the two countries troubled.
Although these skirmishes appear minor in the broad spectrum of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, yet they have caused sufficient dint to bilateral trust between the two countries, which is essential, not only for a lasting peace in Afghanistan but also for better relations between the peoples and governments of the two countries, because, as leaders of both countries have repeatedly said, one can choose his relatives, but not his neighbors.
Pakistan and Afghanistan can both understand the point that they have to rise above petty considerations and narrow vested interests because the experiences of the last three decades have shown that any misery afflicting the region will have equal dividends for both countries. President Hamid Karzai was not wrong when, during a visit to Islamabad some time back, he announced that Pakistan and Afghanistan were conjoined twins. Both nations have so deep intertwined roots that any blow to either side equally harms the other.
Besides their common interests, the people and leaders of both countries know that regional peace and tranquility is a demand of history. If one looks into the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, all countries in the region had passed through such rivalries and bloodbaths but eventually they had to realize that no nation can persist with such animosities forever. Asia has to follow Europe and America in the evolution of history and defiance of history would only further bleed and harm the region.
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