Need to capitalise
Finally the ISI-NDS agreement reached last May has got off the ground. It was signed with much fanfare though it didn’t appear so ‘landmark’ soon afterwards, when post-Murree pressure on Ashraf Ghani forced Kabul to take a step back, and the intelligence sharing deal was one of the casualties. Now, going into the Quadrilateral Coordination Group on Afghan Reconciliation today, intel cooperation is also back on the table. And the first meeting was instructive. Both sides identified lack of coordination between the two agencies as the biggest obstacle to peace, and therefore the greatest advantage to insurgencies on either side.
That is not all. The two DGMOs also held separate meetings, and for the first time both militaries have jointly decided to do something about the border. Neither war would have lasted nearly as long had the Durand Line not been so easily penetrable. And, though it is a daunting task, Pak-Afghan convergence of interest on the matter will go a long way in eventually dealing with it. The role played by the Americans and Chinese must also be appreciated. They kept Kabul and Islamabad engaged even as violence once again threatened to undo the peace process.
The greatest care must now be taken to ensure that this initiative, too, does not fall prey to the usual trend that quickly unravels gains and takes the process back to square one. For far too long Pakistan and Afghanistan have followed the one-step-forward-two-steps-back pattern. It is now up to leaders of both countries to guarantee that neither will give in to sabotage again. Already, by agreeing to cooperate and share information, the two countries have tightened the noose around the enemy. They must now nurture and develop this relationship so the border can be secured and the enemy isolated and eliminated.
