Peace on the western front

Prime Minister Gilani got it half-right when he said that Pakistan was essential to the peace process in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani got it half-right when he said that Pakistan was essential to the peace process in Afghanistan and that “we are a part of the solution, we are not a part of the problem.” A truce between the Hamid Karzai government and the Taliban will indeed be impossible without our involvement. But what makes our participation so vital is that we have been a part of the problem in Afghanistan for nearly two decades. Whether it is in pursuit of the discredited policy of “strategic depth” or ideological affinity with the Taliban’s aims, there is now ample evidence to show that we have, at best, turned a blind eye to the Afghan Taliban operating out of our territory or, at worst, are actively supporting them. For Pakistan to be an honest broker in these talks, this policy of malign neglect needs to be reversed.

Given our desire to be involved with peace talks, now might be a good time to rethink our Afghan policy. We need to take a cue from India and treat Afghanistan as an equal partner, not a satellite state. By improving trade relations with Afghanistan and using embassies rather than militants to have influence on the country, we will be able to better achieve our foreign policy objectives.

Earlier this year, it had seemed that the prospects of Karzai-Taliban negotiations had spurred Pakistan into action. We suddenly went on an Afghan Taliban offensive, arresting top commander Mullah Baradar among others.Many in the international community interpreted these arrests as a cynical manoeuvre designed to anger the Taliban and get them to pull out of talks. Given that this burst of activity was not followed by meaningful action shows that cynicism may be warranted. It also highlights that unless we make stability in Pakistan a vital foreign policy objective, we have no constructive role to play in peace talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2010.