Slow and steady
Afghanistan is ill-equipped to cope with the unending acts of terrorism for both internal and external reasons. The Afghan government and society are badly polarised. Within the Afghan government there are sharp differences between President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. The government’s writ does not extend to vast swathes of the country where ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Afghan Taliban and TTP have set up headquarters. The country is divided on ethnic and sectarian lines. There are deep differences over attitude towards the Taliban with an advisor to the High Peace Council calling them “a sacred group” and Abdullah Abdullah demanding that the network be crushed. There are divisions over policy towards the US, Russia and Pakistan. The number of US troops in Afghanistan has meanwhile shrunk and there is uncertainty about the policy the Trump administration is going to follow.
It was an appropriate move on the part of COAS Bajwa to talk to President Ghani on the phone a second time. It goes to Gen Bajwa’s credit that he held out a hand of friendship despite accusations by Afghan officials that Pakistan was behind the terrorist attacks leading to anti-Pakistan protests outside its embassy in Kabul and in Herat.
It is in Pakistan’s national interest to do the maximum within its power to help bring peace to the neighbouring country. As long as Afghanistan remains destabilised terrorists will continue to use its soil as a spring board to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Pakistan’s strategic interests demand that the Afghan border remains a source of satisfaction to it. Pakistan needs friendly relations with Kabul to be able to benefit to the maximum from TAPI and CASA-1000 and expand its trade with Central Asia. It is necessary for Pakistan to cultivate good relations with Afghanistan irrespective of the blame game from the other side which is unlikely to stop anytime soon. All the more so in view of the polarisation in the neighbouring country where one side is bound to oppose relations with Pakistan when the other wants conciliation and cooperation.