Reframing Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
Pakistan has since started and has been keeping a principled view regarding its relationship with a neighbour country of Afghanistan based on the respect towards sovereignty, mutual interests and peaceful coexistence. The foreign policy has a guiding principle in the region and it is easy to state that Pakistan do not want to be influential but desire to be peaceful and cooperate with others and not to take control of them. Being two countries of the one history, culture and geography, Pakistan holds the idea of developing peaceful relationships founded on non-interference. Support of rights of the people to decide their own fate without any external interference is not only based on moral rule but also on strategic rule. This principle is not only an empty rhetoric but this is witnessed in the manner Pakistan has been involved in engagement of successive government in Afghanistan and its demand of inclusiveness of governance and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been striving to bring about peace in Afghanistan time after time as the world has been an eye watcher. Pakistan has shown good neighbourliness by housing millions of Afghan refugees since the 1970s and more so it was a critical party in the Doha peace talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan had its own internal problems; nevertheless, it was the only country that went to the tune of opening its borders, schools and hospitals to its Afghan sisters and brothers and faced a humanitarian burden, which very few nations endured.
Accusations Ignore Our Sacrifices Against Terrorism
Recent allegations against Pakistan including the contribution to militant units or subversion of Afghanistan are not only baseless but they are highly unjustified. They overlook the mammoth sacrifices Pakistan has rendered in the war against terrorism and these sacrifices were not only in the best interest of the country, but also of the region and the world at large. Over 80,000 Pakistanis have died in the course of fight against terrorism, thousands of security people and citizens. Pakistan have lost billions of dollars in economy and whole communities are displaced in the process of eliminating extremism.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad are only some of the past, and present military operations, yet they speak volumes about Pakistan determination. These were not mere propaganda moves but tough, excruciating and decisive attempts of demolishing terrorist infrastructure. Pakistan went after any type of terrorism, wherever it was coming and wherever it was going. What is very much under-reported is the fact that Pakistani security agencies were operating under tremendous pressure fighting organizations not only jeopardizing the internal unity of Pakistan, but also posed a threat to peace of the entire region.
It is ironical, therefore that Pakistan is currently facing vilification as opposed to its being respected as a frontline state in the war against terrorism. Ones like this are more politically expedient than accurate. Blame games alas are also a way to take away the focus of the real problems that require urgent attention, poverty, insecurity, displacement and the threat of radicalization of the marginalized communities in the region.
Regional Harmony Demands Collaboration, Not Division
Finger-pointing is not the path to the long-term peaceful and prosperous South and Central Asia, finger-pointing. The way is unity of actions. The cooperation is necessary between regions, not separations. It is time to get beyond the relics of mistrusting geopolitics and begin to concentrate on the prospects of the regional connectivity, trade and people to people contacts. Terrorism, climate change, economic stagnation, and other problems that we share need the efforts of cooperation, not suspicion walls.
Pakistan has always stated that there is a necessity of regional mechanisms that allow more cooperation. Islamabad has been keen on participation whether it is through the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) or other newer forums. Pakistan have reached out to Kabul many times with offers of technical aid, trade concessions and humanitarian aid. All stakeholders are now obliged to think of a future vision rather than the trauma of historical offenses.
To the people of Afghanistan, they are a people who need peace and the people of Pakistan need peace. Antagonistic language and demonizing accounts do nothing but gain strength on both sides of the border by fanatical groups. Decades of working cannot afford to be derailed by opportunistic voices. Security cannot be achieved in reality until and unless Afghanistan is functioning as stable and economically viable state all integrated with the economy and also with the politicking of the region.
Let’s Build Trust, Not Narratives
It is time to leave the politics of accusing and replacing it with a politics of trust founded in transparent dialogue with a division of responsibilities. It takes courage, listening courage, humility to recognize the sacrifice made by one another and the wisdom of compromise in order to build trust. Developing unilateral versions of what is happening in Pakistan as the age-old antagonist not only jeopardizes a bilateral relationship but also scrubs off the whole purpose of peace in Afghanistan.
It needs a dedication to accuracy, policy stability, and an understanding of the other person and what they can do and what they cannot do. Pakistan is willing to develop in this direction. The leadership and regional partners of Afghanistan should as well. Rather than causing wars of perceptions through the media how about both sit down and design a future that is beneficial to all.
Not only is this a plea of bilateral peace, it is a request of regional sanity. It is too game-changing to think of smaller political histories. It is incumbent on us, to our people, to the young children who aspire to a brighter future, to the refugees who have the desire of going back to their homeland with dignity, to the families that have been the worst to suffer due to the violence, therefore, it is our duty to act with vision and responsibility.
We should not take history as a problem. We must not offer extremism an avenue by being divided against each other. We can do no less today than choose diplomacy over discord, dialogue over despair and cooperation over confrontation. Only in that way, we can dream of a region where peace is not something that is an exception, it is something that is the rule.
