Pakistan needs a more rational Afghan policy

Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan are facing a dilemma. Increasing terror by outfits like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) with cross-border linkages is causing growing casualties within our security personnel and civilians. At the same time, the failure in securing a desired Afghan response against the TTP or BLA is driving a wedge in our relations with Afghanistan. The solution to this problem lies in strengthening robust internal counter-terrorism mechanisms with capacity to foil militant attacks while adopting a rational approach of smartly handling the bilateral relationship with Afghanistan despite lingering issues. 

The most fundamental reality of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations has always been an over 2,600 km-long border inhabiting over 50 million people in the border belt, with close social, religious, ethnic and economic interdependence. Therefore, historically the nature of this porous border has required effectively managing the movements of people and trade for ensuring mutual peace and stability. 

This is why, despite differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan on some issues from 1947 to the late 1970s, the environment of overall relations and particularly people-to-people interactions between the two countries remained smooth. It’s a fact that during 1965 and 1971, wars on our eastern border, there was no security threat to Pakistan from the western border and there was no unrest in the border region where no Pakistani troops were stationed. 

A visionary approach on Afghan relations should focus on the full spectrum of relations with Afghanistan rather than being confined to selective security aspects. 

Mansoor Khan

The external military interventions in Afghanistan in the past five decades have been a major factor in shattering not only the equilibrium that had existed inside Afghanistan but also undermining the stability of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. As a result of the long wars waged during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the presence of the US/NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2001-2021, Afghanistan and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region became infested with militancy, insurgency, regional and global terror groups and proxy wars. The trust between the two states has continued to deplete and be replaced by a blame-game, accusations and finger pointing against each other. In this process, the important element of socio-economic interaction across the border between the two peoples has become a casualty.

The withdrawal of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in August 2021 brought an end to five decades of fighting in Afghanistan. The Afghan interim government in the past three and a half years has consolidated its control over Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s neighbors as well as regional countries and global powers, though its government is not fully recognized at the international level. 

However, Pakistan’s expectations that today’s Afghanistan would provide opportunities in quelling terror threats by groups like Daesh, TTP and BLA and move toward strengthening harmonious engagement have not been met with. Both the challenges are becoming more complex with time. First, the TTP has pockets of influence in Pakistan, and is increasingly targeting Pakistan’s security forces and strategic projects like CPEC. Due to its linkages with Afghan Taliban, it maintains a presence on Afghan soil too. The TTP’s capabilities suggest that it is certainly receiving external financial support by detractors of close Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Second, Pakistan’s relations with Afghan Taliban leaders have further eroded after their government came to power, which hints toward a perennial problem of ineffective state-to-state engagement. The tactics of pressure through using visas, refugees, trade and transit as leverages has proved counter-productive and cross-border military strikes have further widened the gulf between the two.

Dealing with this challenge requires a shift to a political strategy from the security-based perspective of the past several decades. A visionary approach on Afghan relations should focus on the full spectrum of relations with Afghanistan rather than being confined to selective security aspects. It’s important to institute political channels of engagement with Afghanistan based on principles of sovereign equality, mutual respect and non-interference into each other’s affairs. The agenda of comprehensive interaction has to aim at harnessing opportunities for trade transit and people to people movements while moving forward on partnerships with interested countries for regional connectivity between South Asia and Central Asia through Afghanistan. 

Afghanistan has important stakes in stable relations with Pakistan. With political and economic agendas leading the talks, it is likely to generate a positive momentum. State-to-state engagement and direct interaction between the political leadership is vital for steering bilateral relations to stability. 

The regional connectivity projects entail immense potential for mutual gains for the two countries by deepening economic inter-dependence. In this regard, there is a need for moving forward on building cross-border infrastructures such as the Quetta-Kandahar railway, the Peshawar-Jalalabad railway and opening new trade routes across the long border for increasing economic and commercial interaction.

Many countries of the region including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, China, Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Japan are desirous of partnership with Afghanistan and Pakistan on trans-Afghan infrastructure and energy projects. Many of these countries are already expanding their outreach with the Afghan government despite differences and limitations. Western countries including the US, EU and their allies have also been supportive of a political approach on Afghan stability.

Recently, even India which for over the past two decades has been calling the Afghan Taliban ‘terrorists’ is now expressing its intent of increasing political and economic engagement with the Afghan interim government. 

In the given situation, the most rational option for Pakistan is to work out a political strategy of broader engagement, for deepening a multi-faceted cooperation with Afghanistan. This will hopefully yield opportunities for Pakistan for using its positive leverage skilfully to achieve Afghan cooperation in areas of security, counterterrorism and border management for the sake of shared stakes in economic integration.

– The author is a former Ambassador of Pakistan to Afghanistan and is currently Director of Beaconhouse National University’s Center for Policy Research (BCPR). X:@ambmansoorkhan