They say good fences make good neighbours
One wonders if the Durand Line’s creator merely swiped a pen across a map, announced: “There! That’s done!” and left to celebrate without any knowledge of or thought to the families he was driving apart or the decades of conflict he was leaving behind. The fact of the matter is that, “drawn” as it is across rocky, uneven mountainous terrain, there is little to no chance of either country being able to fully control the daily undocumented crossing across the border without — yes – a border fence.
It’s a far cry from Trump’s “big, beautiful wall”, but the necessity of check posts and regulated travel across the Af-Pak border is now a matter of national security – when push comes to shove, terrorists on both sides find the porous border the best of safe havens, which only spells trouble for the region as a whole. And while Kabul may well re-negotiate the repatriation deadline for the generations of refugees in Pakistan, those eying diplomacy in Islamabad would do well to remember that it is good fences that make good neighbours. Whether or not token statements made in the civilian camp in this regard outlast the next general election, though, is anyone’s guess.
