The way forward for Afghanistan, Pakistan and India is a comprehensive approach and serious regional commitment, possible only if all three countries shed their rivalries and work together
By Dr. Hanif-ur-Rahman and Jamshed Khan
The British Colonial government safely retreated after partitioning the Indian subcontinent in August 1947 but the legacy of disputes in the region they left behind still linger. Kashmir and the Durand Line, in particular, continue to create hurdles between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. All the three countries have a history of hostility due to these unresolved problems jeopardising regional security and economic integration.
The issue of Kashmir has led to full-fledged wars between Indian and Pakistan. The Afghan government also has more often than not blamed Pakistan for infiltrating Afghanistan to have clout against India and to keep the issue of the Durand Line at bay.
Since the Afghan War, Pakistan has tried to have a Pakhtun government in Afghanistan. However, even the Taliban, considered to be Pakistan’s boys, refused to recognise the Durand Line as an international boundary. If history is anything to go by these proxies instead of serving the interests of their masters have proved to be a Frankenstein’s monster, creating problems for all three states and the entire region in the forms of militancy and terrorism.
Trucks at Wagah border: The volume of
trade must increase (PTI photo)
In this context, Pakistan’s Chief of Army staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif’s recent visit to Afghanistan is a welcome gesture. Certainly if there is any sincerity, the visit might assuage the decades long acrimony between the two countries arising from the fallout of the “war on terror”.
A report published by US Pentagon has alleged that Pakistan plays a negative role by supporting proxies in Afghanistan and India. In its report running into over 100 pages, the Pentagon states: “…Such groups continue to act as the primary irritant in Afghan-Pakistan bilateral relations”.
The report added fuel to the fire given Pakistan’s fragile ties with both Afghanistan and Indian historically, as well as in recent times. Afghanistan and Pakistan both allege that the other harbours militants on their respective soil. Similarly Pakistan’s relations with its eastern neighbor India are also tense due to ongoing cross-border firing along the Line of Control and Working Boundary.
Despite a commonality of interests between Pakistan and Afghanistan, their bilateral relations have often been sour, right from the onset of Pakistan’s emergence in 1947. The casus belli that hurt their relations was the utopian concept of Pakhtunistan that Afghanistan supported.
Afghanistan also declared the Durand Line, drawn in 1893, null and void and claiming the Pakhtunistan areas as its own. This and other factors resulted in Afghanistan’s tilt toward the then Soviet Union, and Pakistan leaning towards USA. The issue contributed to the arrival of Soviet forces in Afghanistan in December 1979.
The fallout of that interference and subsequent events are now part of Afghan and world history. However, the saga still continues. The emergence of Taliban in 1994 and al-Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2007 are the outcome of that mistaken notion called Pakhtunistan. The “war on terror” by default is an extension of the acrimonious relationship between the two states. Both countries have suffered greatly due to their misguided policies in the past.
Pakistan drafted the faulty theory of “strategic depth” to counter Afghanistan and Indian influence in the region. Hardly a day goes by without some suicide bombing or other untoward incident in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and potential threat to India’s security.
To reach a win-win situation all three countries need to shun the Kautylian policy that the enemy of one is the friend of other. Rather, they need to embrace the concept that the enemy of one is the enemy of the other. For this they need to design a joint mechanism to defeat the common enemy.
Afghanistan must assure Pakistan that its soil will not be used by any states or organisations inimical to Pakistan’s interests. Similarly Pakistan needs to devise a strategy that assuages Afghanistan’s fears and concerns vis-a-vis Pakistan.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto once remarked that no two countries in the world share so much in common as Pakistan and Afghanistan. His daughter Benazir famously said that there is an Indian in every Pakistani, and a Pakistani in every Indian.
The way forward will be a comprehensive approach and serious regional commitment that can only be achieved if all three countries shed their rivalries and work collectively. The best strategy for both Pakistan and Afghanistan is to declare each other as sister countries.
The volume of trade must increase. In the field of education Pakistan needs to accommodate more Afghan students in Pakistani colleges and universities. In the post drawdown of international forces Pakistan, India and Afghanistan must strive for a shining and bright future. All stakeholders must take the “war on terror” to a logical conclusion.
All three countries must cooperate to tackle the problem of militancy and terrorism through a cohesive strategy for the future of a peaceful South Asia, Central Asia and the entire region. Economic cooperation should increase among these three countries and other countries in the region especially China. This region has a special importance and the potential to serve as a trade nucleus for the South Asian countries and also for the energy rich Central Asia.
Dr.Hanif-ur-Rehman recently completed his PhD in History from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and works as a Lecturer in H/9 College Islamabad. Jamshed Khan is a PhD Scholar at the Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, currently a Visiting Research Student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
