An unending chill

The relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has fluctuated between relatively convivial to downright toxic in the last decade. The refusal of invitations extended to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani by several Pakistani visitors to Kabul is not so much a new low as an extension of a pre-existing condition. The reasons for the refusal are clear enough for Mr Ghani. He will not be coming to Pakistan until we ‘hand over’ the perpetrators of a series of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, attacks that Mr Ghani asserts were carried out by terrorists operating from, or supported by, Pakistan. It is reported that during meetings between the Afghan president and the head of the ISI that documents were presented relative to a range of attacks in Afghanistan, which presumably support the Afghan perception.

It is undeniable, based on evidence stretched over many years, that terrorists operating in Afghanistan — some of them but by no means all — have a linkage with Pakistan and that some of them have carried out operations from bases within Pakistan. In recent times Operation Zarb-e-Azb has resulted in the elimination of many of these groups as well as having the effect of driving what remained of them over the border, out of Pakistan and into Afghanistan where they have little difficulty in merging with the tapestry of extremist and terrorist groups that exist there.

Even assuming it wanted to — and there are elements within that would not want — Pakistan civilian and military agencies could probably not at the drop of a hat lay their hands on the people the Afghans seek. That said, Afghanistan is not the only voice commenting on the snakes at the bottom of the Pakistan garden, and that as long as they are there then Pakistan is going to be open to charges of complicity at the least and criminal negligence at the worst. Those same snakes bite inside Pakistan as they do in Afghanistan, and there are elements within our country that actively, indeed openly, support them. Until that is decisively addressed then there is going to be no warming of relations between Kabul and Islamabad and this polluted relationship is going to sully the waters regionally for years to come.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2017.

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