Pakistan-Afghan clashes

Governments of both countries should jointly take steps to tackle them instead of getting entangled in a war of words.

The Foreign Office on May 2 summoned the Afghan chargé d’affaires to lodge a protest against unprovoked firing by the Afghan forces on a Pakistani check post. The Afghan government has sent a delegation to investigate the incident. Such incidents can have serious implications for relations between the two countries and should thus be avoided.

There are certain elements in both countries that are supporting terrorism and causing instability. The governments of both countries should jointly take steps to tackle them instead of getting entangled in another war of words or retaliatory practices. The two sides should agree to work together to fight terrorism in letter and inspirit.

It is important that both neighbours should maintain good relations for peace to prosper in the region. The central issue here is what will happen in Afghanistan and the region in the lead-up to the Nato pullout? The need of the hour is for all stakeholders to show statesmanship and start engaging at a productive level. Moreover, the “strategic depth” policy should be scrapped once and for all. It is important that only the Afghan people decide their own form of government and destiny. Relations will only improve once this is ensured.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have faced misery, pain, trials and tribulations that have affected us over the past 30 years; one way or the other, both nations have been scarred and wounded by three decades of conflict and violence in this region. The most agonising aspect of these years has been the way this prolonged conflict has brutalised our societies and has all but dismantled and destroyed time-honoured traditions, codes of conduct and human values that sustained our societies. Clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces will only help our common enemy — i.e., the militant forces bent on creating havoc in the region. We should recognise this fact and fight militancy together, instead of wasting our time fighting each other.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2013.