The price of security

Securing the borders of Pakistan is costly, and Rs67.3 billion have been spent in the last 18 months to stop terrorists infiltrating principally from Afghanistan, as well as upping the security on installations such as those associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other key infrastructure. This spending is separate from regular defence spending and Pakistan did not use any American money for this work neither did Pakistan receive any American funding in the period, July 2016 to December 2017. This is not peanuts, and represents a substantial investment in both our own security and the security of American and Afghan troops on the other side of the border, a reality unacknowledged by the Americans as they castigate us for not doing enough to combat the terrorist threat.

The Pak-Afghan border has long been more notional than literal along much of its length, and is anyway disputed by Afghanistan that has never accepted the Durand Line which forms much of the demarcation. In reality Pakistan has little choice but to spend the money. The Americans and their allies, including the Afghan National Army (ANA), have failed to make any significant improvement in the security environment on the Afghan side, and now seem keen to shift the responsibility for that to Pakistan via the convenient vehicle of unsubstantiated accusations of the maintenance of ‘safe havens’ for groups that operate trans-border.

The border is 2,611-kilometre long and the cost of securing it and then maintaining that security is only going to rise over time. Vulnerable points of greatest infiltration/weakness have been identified and work is proceeding with much already done. the Bajaur, Mohmand and Khyber agencies are top of the list with Balochistan to follow. With around 70,000 dead and more than $123.1 billion in direct and indirect losses, to say nothing of the displacement and relocation of almost 500,000 people, we find American claims of ‘not doing enough’ to be churlish at the very least. The American contribution to our border security in the period under consideration has been zero. Count your beans again, Uncle Sam.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2018.

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