Worsening ties

The “cold war” raging between Kabul and Islamabad for some time, comprising mainly of an exchange of provocative statements from either side, took a more heated turn on March 27 after an Afghan military team, due to make a maiden visit across the Durand Line, declined to come. The team had been scheduled to take part in military exercise simulations at the Quetta Staff College. Kabul attributed its decision to shelling by Pakistan in the eastern part of Kunar province, an allegation which has been denied, with the Pakistan Foreign Office stating that troops were responding to an incursion from the Afghan side of the border.



It is, of course, impossible to say how or why the skirmish occurred. The bigger issue is the distinct worsening in ties that we see between the two countries. In Kabul, the Afghan deputy foreign minister, Jawed Ludin, has stated that his government was in a “state of shock” over Pakistani complacency in pushing forward the Afghan peace process. Islamabad is a key player in talks with the Taliban, but has said that the Hamid Karzai-led government was impeding these. It is also well known that in Islamabad, there is a strongly rooted belief that India is directing Afghan foreign policy. This, of course, is not entirely unfounded; and on the same pattern, neither is the view in Kabul that Pakistan’s military establishment plans to use militants as a means to gain control over Kabul after the US withdrawal in 2014.

We have seen such games before. Why Pakistan would wish to entangle itself in a country as complicated — and as disaster-prone — as Afghanistan is hard to understand. But staying away from this complex question, the simple fact is that the way things are going now is not good. Pakistan and Afghanistan desperately need to cooperate against militancy, the enemy of the people in both lands, and provide the acumen necessary to put these people, as well as the need for regional stability, ahead of all else, as they plan the future following the planned US pullout in 2014. The increased tensions we see right now will not help at all in this crucial quest.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2013.