Kabul’s overture for talks

It took Afghanistan more than a week to make an overture to Pakistan following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of his new Af-Pak policy. Although Kabul’s overture signalling willingness for talks with Islamabad took longer than usual, it was much needed owing to the wave of anger and protest sparked in Pakistan by Trump’s freshly crafted policy. Despite playing an instrumental role in the war against terrorism, Islamabad was vilified for the US’s own failures in Afghanistan and singled out for harbouring agents of terror on its soil. Its partnership with the US stretching over 16 long years and its status as the largest non-Nato ally went largely unacknowledged. Instead Trump chose to taunt it over the billions and billions of dollars America is supposed to have given Pakistan. These claims appear to be exaggerated and have been officially contested by Pakistani authorities.

It is true that no country in the region has gone quite so far as Pakistan to aid the war effort against terror groups in Afghanistan or paid as heavy a price in the form of blowback as it has to eliminate the threat of terrorism while risking the security of its own cities and towns. The unkindest cut was perhaps Trump’s decision to earmark a role for India in Afghanistan at the expense of Pakistan.

By offering comprehensive political negotiations, Kabul believes it has shown sufficient inclination for peace and normalising relations with Pakistan. However, there is much work to be done. The first National Security Committee meeting held under the watch of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has already cited several irritants that currently stand in the way of efforts to normalise diplomatic and political ties with Afghanistan. Two major obstacles include repeated cross-border fire and the existing support network in Afghanistan for terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Islamabad shares Ghani’s dream of peace in Afghanistan but the Afghan leader is mistaken if he thinks that it can be achieved through the Trump plan.

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

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