HomeArticlePak efforts to resolve crisis in Afghanistan

Pak efforts to resolve crisis in Afghanistan

By Muhammad Shoaib Khan

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, two major powers were overpowering the world; Great Britain and the Russian Empire. Both were expanding in different directions, the former towards the East and North, the latter the West and South.

The two powers collided during their expansionist design. Their focal point of collision was Afghanistan, which has rich historical background regarding territorial issues with other countries. At that time subcontinent was under rule of Great Britain, the Emir of Afghanistan Abdur Rahman Khan requested the Viceroy of British India (now Pakistan) draw a demarcation line to get over with the chances of collision. The then Viceroy, after recommendations of the commission, formed the boundary line between British India and Afghanistan to be made for this perspective. Sir Mortimer Durand proposed to draw the line of Afghanistan in 1893 with British India and was hence named the Durand Line a.k.a Pak-Afghan Border, Afghanistan Emir accepted the proposed formation of the Durand Line.

Later in 1947, British India was divided and two independent countries emerged on world map which were Pakistan and India. At that time Afghanistan refused to accept Durand Line agreement and claimed that it was nullified after the division of the subcontinent and had no legal means. Afghan government further demanded to include Balochistan and NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) as part of the Afghan territory because of Pashtun ethnicity and tribal culture. This nonsensical demand was rejected by Pakistan, because of majority of Pashtun tribes were part of Pakistan instead of Afghanistan. All of this resulted in the decision that the Durand Line agreement could not be nullified. This initiated the bitter relationship between the two countries since birth of Pakistan

The abhorrence of Afghanistan kept increasing, which was evident because Afghanistan objected to Pakistan admission to the United Nations. On the other hand USSR expansionist design kept increasing so that they could reach warm waters, their way to reach warm waters through Afghan territory was resisted by Taliban resulting in the defeat of USSR in the late twentieth century. Once again Afghanistan accused Pakistan of backing Taliban against soviets. USSR-Afghanistan war eventually ended resulting in the creation of central Asian states on the world map. This whole incident added more bitterness to Pak-Afghan relations.

After Afghan war Pakistan recognized Taliban government as it was the voice of the Afghan people. Later, after 9/11 attack in US, the then US President George W Bush wages war against Afghanistan claiming that the Twin Tower attack was planned within Afghan territory. The US justified their invasion on Afghan soil and termed it as ‘War on Terror’ in which NATO and western countries supported the US stance. Due to this attack the Afghan community was displaced internally and sought refuge in other countries. At that time it was Pakistan who helped the Afghan people by opening its borders to facilitate Afghanis on a humanitarian basis. Even then the Afghan government did not recognize this humane act of Pakistan.

Pakistan also suffered from the war on terror because of the shared border. Instead of building good relations with Pakistan, the former maintained relations with enemies of Pakistan. Thus the Afghan territory was offered as a help to India, to destabilize Pakistan, as it was also confessed by an Indian Spy caught in Pakistan. For this purpose, India has the highest number of consulates in Afghanistan, a violation of diplomatic norms. Behind the curtain the performance of India in the destabilization of Pakistan is not hidden from the international community. Pakistan has provided proof on multiple occasions to Afghan officials to prove the role of India in sabotaging Pak-Afghan relations.

A number of times Pakistani territory was attacked by Afghan forces and insurgent groups that killed several civilians along with soldiers. Pakistan government registered its protest diplomatically against Afghan forces stating these type of acts will create hurdles in maintaining healthy relations among both countries. Nevertheless it is a long debate as to why Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are bitter rather than friendly. But now both countries should figure out that external forces are hiding behind the curtain and trying to destabilize the friendly relations between the two neighboring states. Afghanistan is a pivotal part of South Asia, considered as ‘Heart of Asia’, so its stability and peace is important to Asia as well as Pakistan.

Afghanistan should recognize Pakistan’s efforts in maintaining peace within their territory and also be obliged for facilitating their refugees within Pakistan for almost the last two decades. Now Pakistan is trying to utilize every diplomatic forum for Afghan Taliban recognition and formation of inclusive government in Afghanistan. This will help to overcome humanitarian and economic crisis that Afghans are facing nowadays. UN also appreciated Pakistan efforts in this regard. At last everyone knows that Afghanistan needs Pakistan help and support to resolve there crisis and for this purpose Afghans have to ignore role of spoilers so that they could lead towards prosperity.

After Kabul fall in 2021 and withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, Taliban took over Afghan government which is not recognized by international community so far. On the other hand Pakistan facilitated the Afghan peace process in between US and Afghan Taliban that were held in Doha. Though Afghanistan was took over by Taliban, issue of Pak-Afghan border (Durand Line) emerged once again and India is trying to exploit the situation once again so that rift could be created in between Pakistan and Afghan Taliban. Due to porous Pak-Afghan border, issues of terrorism, smuggling, human trafficking and infiltration created rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On a number of occasions Pakistan officially demanded action from Afghan authorities against border infiltration but issue was not addressed by the Afghan authorities. Initial plan of border fencing was started in 2005, but there were difficulties at that time, so in 2017, Pakistan started speedy mechanism to fence its border with Afghanistan  to prevent terrorism, drug trafficking, refugees, illegal immigration, smuggling and infiltration from across the border. Recently Pakistan government and military reaffirmed its commitment to complete border fence. To address this issue few days ago Pak NSA Moeed Yousuf visited Kabul to discuss the matter of border with Afghan Taliban. Both parties agreed to form a high-level committee to address border issues. Both sides agreed to establish a national-level coordination mechanism for enhancing facilitation at border crossing points and to expedite ongoing negotiations to conclude a new trade agreement. The development comes weeks after videos circulated on social media purportedly showing Taliban fighters uprooting a portion of the fence along the Pak-Afghan border.

At present India trying to create rift and confusion in between Pakistan and Afghanistan by projecting fake news regarding fight between Pakistani and Afghan forces on border issue. They knew that this situation could be exploited against Pakistan. Now to counter this negativity Pakistan needs to engage Taliban diplomatically and convince them that not to listen those elements who are trying to sabotage Pak-Afghan relations.

The writer is political and media analyst who writes on international political issues

Feedback can be given at m.shoaib_khan@live.com

 

 

 

 

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