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Our interests in Afghanistan
Our narrow interest in having more influence than India in Afghanistan should not trump greater interests of the world
Our narrow interest in having more influence than India in Afghanistan should not trump greater interests of the world. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
While we are fighting the Pakistani Taliban and sacrificing a tremendous amount of blood in doing so, we are, at the very least, ignoring the Haqqani Network, which primarily carries out attacks in Afghanistan. After years of diplomatic inquiries and suggestions that we may want to consider the Haqqani Network a threat as well, the US finally reacted harshly in the form of a speech given by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in Kabul. Panetta said that the US is “reaching the limits of our patience” with Pakistan and urged it to deny the Haqqani Network a safe haven in North Waziristan.
For the US, stymieing the Haqqani Network is vital to its plans for withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2014. The only way the US can leave the country without having to admit defeat is if violence in Afghanistan is significantly reduced. Pakistan, however, sees things differently. By keeping the Haqqani Network operational, it thinks it can both counteract Indian influence in Afghanistan and get a seat in the post-US Afghan government that it expects to be dominated by the Taliban. We need to realise how unwise this plan is. It is essentially a rerun of our Afghan policy of the 1980s and 1990s, when the same flawed logic brought us lots of guns, drugs and refugees but little security while destroying the nation of Afghanistan.
Pakistan certainly has a case when it tells the US that it does not have enough troops at its disposal to fight the Haqqani Network in what would surely be a long and bloody battle in North Waziristan. But the problem is that the military is perceived by many, especially the rest of the world, as being hand-in-glove with the Haqqani Network, through its intelligence agencies. The thinking is that this is done as part of the — very flawed and now discredited — policy of ‘strategic depth’. The end result is that we are not only making it harder for peace to take hold in Afghanistan, we are also harming our own interests because the rest of the world does not believe us when we say we are innocent of any interference. Our narrow interest in having more influence than India in Afghanistan should not trump the greater interests of the world.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2012.
Reader Comments (33)
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Pakistan has to give up its lofty aspirations of being more influential than India in Afghanistan. India has spent more than $2 billion in Afghanistan in the last ten years and in comparison Pakistan has not done much. Afghans view India as a benevolent partner and Pakistan as a malicious enemy and nothing is going to change that.
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I believe, Pakistan got so much involved in Afghanistan that there came a time to select one country from the two and probably Pakistan made its choice clear after 2001, gave preference to Afghanistan over Kashmir. Now it doesn’t matter whether NATO-US would run away or not, Pakistan has got its interest to the highest of level and from Afghanistan-China new joint declaration its crystal clear.
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@Zalmai:
you are right if you are talking about the present government regime of Afghanistan. But after the exit of ISAF the country will not be a good friend of India since the regime will then takeover would be entirely different from the present.
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@Zalmai: Afghanistan has always been a puppet of the Indians so why should that change? It doesn’t matter how much Pakistan helps Afghanis or provides shelter for their refugees. It is in the nature of Afghanis to be more supportive of their Indian masters. The key for Pakistan is to seal the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan so that the refugees do not come back and become a drain on Pakistan again. More importantly it will stop anti state criminals from coming in via Afghanistan where they hurt innocent Pakistanis.
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@Ashar
Wishful thinking!
The regime that will take over post 2014 will be made up of the same people from the current regime and their policies will remain intact. The recently signed Strategic Partnership Agreement between Afghanistan and USA guarantees that undesirable elements from the anals of history don’t revisit and undermine the achievements of the last ten years.
Afghans are in no mood to trade their hard won freedom, progress and development of the last ten years for a repressive and alien ideology peddled by slaves. You don’t understand Afghans and refuse to acknowledge ground realites.
Pakistanis are under the impression that Afghanistan will revert back to the chaos and anarchy of the 80s and 90s, but those days are over. I dare say that Pakistanis want Afghanistan to remain backward and unstable and will do anything to sabotage progress in Afghanistan.
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We can call it anything but the fact is when Pakistan became a country Afghanistan did not recognize it. Afghans are Indian friends because India does not want to occupy and dictate to their govt. Indians are more interested in business and not capturing the country or making it a puppet. We can hate it or love it but it is what it is. Our dreams of being a superpower would not materialize. Let me make it clear just like Saddam’s party is not coming into power in Iraq, Taliban are not going to take over. With all the power and money Taliban could not finish the Northern Alliance how could they do it now after so much US arms and training? Why can’t we leave Afghanistan alone and let them work out their differences?
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@Arian: How many times have we heard that the people in Afghanistan want nothing to do with the Taleban? I wish this were the case and that their backward ideology and culture would just vanish. At the very least, I would like this ideology to stay on the Afghani side of the border and never come into Pakistan. If you are an Afghani, you would know that wide swathes of that country remain as backward as always and this is where the culture of the Taleban finds fertile ground. You will find out your own ground realities soon enough but to ignore the reality of how people in much of the country outside of Kabul thinks and behaves is like putting your head in the ground. Stope corruption in your government and help poor Afghanis get a job. What you people in Afghanistan don’t realise is that most Pakistanis want a stable progressive Afghanistan because it adversely affects Pakistan when there are troubles there. I am not a Pashtun Pakistani so I don’t have any ethnic preference for Pashtuns over Persians in Afghanistan. I just want the whole nation to calm down and develop because it caused Pakistan enough grief and trouble.
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@Zalmai:
Unfortunately, This is not the matter of choice for Afghanistan about “lofty aspirations ” of Pakistan. Your geo political and geo strategic situation locks your fate with Pakistan. You have to breath through Pakistan, you have to survive through Pakistan. It will be a bad choice to flirt with India as she is far away. India can only approach you by Pakistan’s reference. It’s good for you to learn this quickly other wise huge losses will be suffered by this reckless approach. realities and logics are for wise men.
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” Our narrow interest in having more influence than India in Afghanistan”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Simple, outdo the Indians in terms of development work in Afghanistan.
Dont attemp “sponsored Govt” there.
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The only way Pakistan can help itself is accept the Durrand line that Afghanistan wishes. Give up areas permanently to Afghanistan. Even so called puppet, friends of Pakistan The Taliban never accepted present durrand line…
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@Huzaifa
You are absolutely mistaken about Afghanistan needing Pakistan to breath and live. India can approach Afghanistan through the port in Iran and Pakistan has to play ball sooner or later because its own economy will benefit from trade with Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. You need us more than we need you because Pakistan has to go through us to access landlocked Central Asia. You see we live in a multilateral universe not a unilateral world.
@Maria
You have no idea what you are talking about. Afghans from every nook and corner of the country detest the retrograde Taliban and do not, I stress do not wish for them to come back to power.
Afghanistan has always been an underdeveloped country but this alien ideology is not indigenous and will never take root because we have an identity unlike Pakistan, which is confused about its South Asian heritage and claim to be of Arabic, Afghan, Iranian and Central Asian descent.
You fail to recognize that Afghanistan has been around since 1747 and we are the source of all your heroes and myths. Recommend
@Shailendra
Ditto! Even so called puppet friends of Pakistan, the Taliban never accepted the Durrand Line.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are both revisionist and irridentist states and they will perpetuate this enmity in the region for decades to come unless they solve their border disputes. They will use terrorism, drugs, and non state actors as pretexts to undermine and destabilize each other.
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Still the old dilemma, What i am trying to say now may sound strange to some but in the end that is/will be the fact.
I believe after the coming elections there would be three main players in the country, “The Hizbs”, “Taliban”, “Current Governing Party” (though almost all are funded by foreign agencies). This pretty much makes it clear that Taliban will rule Afghanistan again (the most deserving ones), they will come up with pure Shariah Law and there would be some clear policy changes regarding economic issues, women education, poverty control, and particularly foreign policies with India, Iran, Pakistan and other countries.
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PolPot : Another idea could be Let Pak give afghan enough cash so that the Afganistan can treat India’s contribution as loan and return it. That will give Pak a genuine advantage.
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@Maria
There are 35,000 madrassas in Pakistan where young minds are brainwashed and deprived of a secular education and trained to become future jihadis. You could use some introspection when it comes to your own country’s myopic policies vis a vis Afghanistan.
Don’t tell me that you are not aware of the indoctrination of this Wahhabi/Salafi ideology taking root in Pakistan and subsequently exported to Afghanistan through the so called Taliban.
How can you ignore facts and be oblivious to the thousands of people that attend DPC rallies, who are they? People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Your country is infested with this backward ideology, where you glorify killers of your elected politicians and shower them with garlands instead of condemning them to the gallows.
Please stop your ignorant rants and like they say in Hindi/Urdu… kuch kehne se pehle apne garewan mein jhak kar dekho. You really need to educate yourself about your own country before you spew your unfounded and senseless rhetoric.
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Dear Pakistanis,
Make sure India would never ever attempt to invade or occupy any country.Our beloved ex President of India Mr.Abdul Kalam ,once asked historians to enlighten him whether India invaded any country since last 2000 years.The answer was big NO.Now do not insert Kashmir factor here.
As Zalmai pointed out we should not fight militarily but on economic fronts.Yes India is investing in Afghanistan to get share of its natural resources which will be beneficial for us and not to encircle you.Why don’t you invest in Afghanistan to develop its infrastructure? Recommend
@Arian:
That was a brilliant response – hard-hitting and fact-based. Really great stuff.
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by supporting the Haqqani network, we are deliberately narrowing our base in Afghanistan. Off course the majority non Pushtuns will again be alienated.
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@ All self-proclaimed patriotic Pakistanis:
This obsession of yours with Indians will eventually destroy you as a nation. Please stop being pathetic. Afghanistan is a sovereign country now and will never allow any country even India to lobby against any country of the world inside Afghanistan.
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@AFGHAN:
A good reply well said hope a new age of prosperity and peace dawn’s in afghanistan
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Let pakistan give enough cash to Afghans. Pakistan is itself an international beggar. A beggar cannot give alms.@vasan:
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We Pakistanis need more jobs, better economy, more internal peace, more education, and better health care. These will not come until our government (army+civilian rulers) forgets about Afghanistan and starts paying attention to the population’s welfare. This means reducing the military budget, increasing the budget for education and health care, and imposing rule of law in the country. It does not matter whether Afghanistan recognizes us or not; it does not matter who rules Afghanistan; nor does it matter which foreign power has influence there. If our rulers’ goal is strictly population welfare, Afghanistan will suddenly become a distant, stone-age like country in their minds whose importance is close to zero. But are the rulers listening? Is their goal the welfare of the Pakistani nation, or is their goal gaining influence in Afghanistan (which automatically means increased misery for the nation of Pakistan)?
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@Maria:
My dear sister! I think you dont know the reality or deliberately want to hide the real facts. Just have some questions and you should give me response: 1. Who created Taliban? 2. Who were Naseerullah babar and karnal Imam? 3. Who is supporting Taliban now? 3. 4.Where was osama bin ladin killed? 5.who trained Afghan mujahideen against President Daud(during whom there was no soviet invasion). To tell you truth we Afghans will never forget the hospitality of people of pakistan and the help pakistan provided during soviet invasion but pakistan intention was different from what we Afghans were thinking. Pakistan wanted STRATEGIC DEPTH for which they destryoed our country and created and supported different factions. Regarding the corruption, your advice is the best but Hamid karzai dont have the nickname of 10%.
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@ Blackjack
Thanks for your kind words. Arguments based on facts merit a respectable response but senseless rhetoric and jingoistic nationalism brings out the ugliness in all of us. I had more choice words in my post but they were edited out.
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@Arian
Why so much hatred for Pakistan, brother. Have you forgotten Pakistan helped Muhajideen to help Afghans against imperial Russia? Have you forgotten Pakistan opened the borders for Afghan brothers in toughest times? Have you forgotten Pakistan nourished and fed impoverished Afghan refugees and provided them with shelter? Pakistan is a poor country but still bears the cost and burdern of almost 3million Afghans. Pakistan is the only country that always maintained diplomatic relations and embassy in kabul in toughest of Aghans times. Pakistanis do not hate Afghan muslim brothers as hundreds of thousands of Afghanis now hold Pakistani nationality and enjoying equality and dignity in the country of scarce resources. Pakistan provides education, food, water, shelter, work, safety, medical care, and much more to afghans and their two generations of children. Pakistan does so much for afghans that is why like every other nation Pakistan has its own interests too.
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@Arian: Instead of accepting the reality that the Taleban represent one large faction of Afghanis and that their message, albeit backward, resonates with a large segment of your nation, you want to poke holes at Pakistan. I see that you have good support from your Indian friend Blackjack here which shows you why your thinking is biased. I think you will find out soon enough who Afghanis do and don’t support so it’s not for me or anyone else to convince you. As for Afghanistan existing since the late 1700s, perhaps you don’t know that the ancient civilizations of Pakistan existed over 7000 years ago. You may not know the situation of your own country, so I won’t blame you if you are ignorant to the rich and ancient history of Pakistan. By the way Al Sind in Southern Pakistan was Muslim long before the Afghanis were converted to Islam.
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@Maria:
This is called pack of lies. As your state is in denial position like they say one thing and doing another, you also want to hide the sun just by two fingers. Your country is invented just 60 years back yet you claim about 7000 years. At that time half of your country was part of India and Half was of Afghanistan. British empire created pakistan for their interest in the region as they created Israel and pakistan is persuing the same strategy in the region as was persuied by British. You better study your history and then if you have any heroes in your country then change names of your missiles from Abdali and Ghori to those. Hope you understand the reality.
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Really it is the need of time to recall those who had worsen or worsening the present time.such elements are required to close their big mouths to have peace
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@Maria
perhaps you don’t know that the ancient civilizations of Pakistan existed over 7000 years ago.
Really. You mean that history did not begin with Bin Qasim?
By the way Al Sind in Southern Pakistan was Muslim long before the Afghanis were converted to Islam.
Ah! Here comes the actual history.
And nothing about Afghanistan being the source of all heroes and myths of Pakistan. And progenitors and rulers too.
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@Naseer Qureshi:
I like your comment and as an afghan I have so much respect for the people of pakistan and we will not forget the hospitality people of pakistan provided us during soviet invasion. However we dont like the policy of your military and establishment. They see the prosper of pakistan in destroying Afghanistan which is a ridiculous. If you want to reduce india’s interest in Afghanistan, there should be other way not to destabilise our country. Pakistan as always remains against our central Government. As an Afghan I would be so happy if our region become like European Union. Europe fought eachother in WW1 and WW2 but now they are enjoying by accepting eachother interest. People of pakistan,afghanistan,india,iran,china,russia and other central assian countries dont have problem with eachother but it is our Governments to addopt the policy wihch could provide peaceful environment for their people.
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@Naseer Qureshi
I don’t have any hatred for Pakistanis. I have a problem with people who are in denial and are always projecting false information and hiding under the cover of chauvinistic nationalism.
For your information, there are more than 80,000 Pakistani laborers currently working in Afghanistan and nobody in Afghanistan has a problem with them. I have a problem with people that propagate false propaganda about Afghanistan and specifically Taliban.
I want to spell this out loud and clear to all Pakistanis that Afghans detest the Taliban and everything they stand for, but for some reason Pakistanis want to hold on to their national narrative that Afghans love the Taliban, which is just nonsense.
Afghanistan has been ruled by kings and aristocrats and no Afghan in the right mind would ever accept semi-literate peasants with an alien ideology and agenda to be ruling over them. This is the truth and nothing but the truth.
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@Afghanistan: The fact that so many Indians and Afghanis are here to chant their delusional mantras about stability in Afghanistan and using Pakistan as the scapegoat for all their problems shows me how truly devious they are. It is clear that both Indians and their Afghani puppets share an unhealthy Pakistan obsession – right down to a confused sense of history. Whether you want to understand this or not, modern India is a creation of the British that came to be in 1947. Prior to that the Muslims of South Asia ruled all of the region. As for Ahmad Shah Abdalli, he was born in Multan in present day Pakistan. You can go on denying that facts or history listening to the tune of your Indian piper but remember a Persian saying “cheghel ba alk-i khonera mega, sorakhe ! ” This sums up the dilema of Afghanis not taking responsibility for their own affairs and blaming others. Look in the mirror and you will see the truth staring back at you.
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@Maria:
lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahmad shah Abdali born in Multan…………Thats why I advise you to study the history. Anyway for your kind information Abdali was from kandahar and he conquered India and Multan was part of India at that time. Yes you are right that we should solve our problem by ourselves but you pakistanis can not fight indians by yourself so want us to be friend with you against India. Leave us alone and try to strengthen your country not only militarily but economically so that could fight with india. Better to slove your disputes with India and dont drag us for that enmity. Recommend