Resumption of dialogue with Afghanistan
Ever-erratic Pak-Afghan relations have taken a more sober tone as Afghan president Ashraf Ghani during his speech at the on-going session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) invited Pakistan to reopen dialogue with Afghanistan to work together towards regional peace.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi meanwhile spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think-tank where he said “nobody wants peace in Afghanistan more than Pakistan”.
He further explained how Pakistan will take action against any terrorist sanctuaries on its soil if Afghanistan provides coordinates of those areas where it alleges Pakistan hosts these so called sanctuaries.
Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s meeting with Afghan Ambassador Dr Omar Zakhilwal also displays a new found intention from both sides to resume dialogue and cooperation.
This foreign policy see-saw is nothing new and a relapse back to hostility and the perpetual blame game of who sponsors which terrorists against the other can easily happen because of the huge trust deficit that still exists.
Almost every terrorist attack in either country is followed by accusations of it being sponsored from the other side of the border. Sincere efforts have to be made by both countries to find and eliminate such threats in order to start building some trust.
The US has has been embarrassingly unsuccessful in its effort to build an Afghan army that can fight al-Qaeda, the Taliban and now the Islamic State. Taliban now control the most amount of territory ever during the insurgency that has lasted 16 years now. So there is plenty of blame to go around for the crisis – not just terrorists that allegedly take refuge in Pakistan.
Nonetheless Pakistan has to be mindful of the consequences of harboring terrorist organisations. Only recently a drone strike killed a commander of the Haqqani group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district.
Afghanistan has also taken exception to the fencing of the Durand line by Pakistan. If both sides are able to resolve their differences through meaningful dialogue and unify against the common threat of terrorism there may not be any need for fences.
