Despite our hospitality

Lack of security and interference by the governor of Nangarhar province of Afghanistan has forced Pakistan to close its consulate general in Jalalabad. Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul has, through a letter, informed the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the interference by Hayatullah Hayat, the Nangarhar governor, which comes in complete violation of the Vienna Convention of the Consular Relations 1963. The letter makes it clear that the consulate will remain closed until adequate security arrangements are made. While the Pakistan embassy’s letter does not specify how the Nangarhar governor interfered in the functioning of the consulate affairs, reports suggest that Hayat entered the consulate with the police chief and other government officials in order to have the visa of an unknown person approved.

The closure of the consulate is the latest episode in a period of increasingly strained relations between the two countries. And it is the Nangarhar province of which Jalalabad is the capital that has been in the news, in particular. In November last, a Pakistani diplomat was shot dead outside his residence in Jalalabad. Last June, two Pakistani diplomats were kidnapped in Nangarhar while heading to Pakistan by road. Besides, Pakistan’s consulate in Jalalabad — the same that stands closed now — has witnessed anti-Pakistan rallies outside it. One of them came in September last when dozens of Afghans accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to terrorists. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been facing difficulties, especially in view of the increasing Indian presence in the war-torn country.

Contrary to the Afghan hostility for Pakistanis, Pakistan’s hospitality to the Afghans has been a matter of record. Pakistan has been playing host to millions of Afghan refugees since 1979. Nearly 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees are still residing in Pakistan, according to the UNHCR’s data, apart from more than 2.5 illegal immigrants from the hostile neighbour.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2018.

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