The Enduring Pakistan-Afghanistan Relationship

Pakistan has shown track record of standing more unswervingly committed and committed in all its dealings with Afghanistan than any other nation, a fact which has not changed through the complicated geostrategic relations, political procedures and upheavals that have been a mark of the region throughout the decades. Pakistan-Afghanistan Relationship will run deep and will be based on the common history, common geography, bonded cultures and economic, social and religious ties of centuries. Such ties have produced not only neighbourly coexistence but the relationship of brothers, the relationship which does not build boundaries of statecraft and diplomacy but one that depicts the relationship of kinship, faith, and interdependence.
This association between these two nations is neither a creation of contemporary geopolitics but is rather the result of civilizational ties between these two civilizations which had been connected since times long ago in centuries and millennia when Afghanistan was the natural exit point of trade between the Central Asian Republics and the Indian subcontinent the current geography of Pakistan. Such prehistoric trade routes did not only contribute to the economy but as well brought in cultural and religious thoughts, spiritual developments, crafts and academic traditions to both sides that made them both rich and the similar legacy of which is still reverberating today. It is in this vein that Pakistan has been the strongest supporter of revivifying these historical connections using the present-day trade nexus, infrastructural connectivity, and people to people interactions as the key towards making sure that mutual prosperity is not only possible but also very essential in establishing regional peace.
This assumption does not only lie within romantic historical understanding but in real life understanding of strategic interdependence of both countries. The further fates of Pakistan and Afghanistan will be inextricably interconnected, because in the case of stability in either country, there are preconditions of stability in another. This fact leads to further proof of Pakistan to promote peace processes in Afghanistan as being Afghan led and Afghan owned, since in this way, the peaceful building of Afghanistan is directly proportional to the prevention of cross border crime, terrorist infiltration, and refugee crisis that means an unbearable burden to the resources of Pakistan, in the past. The stability and growth in Pakistan, on the other hand, is a driving force of the growth in trade, conjunctively, and economic repatriation to regional markets in Afghanistan.
Strong infrastructure, locations of harbours, energy distribution, and road systems in Pakistan offer the most promising opening of Afghanistan into the international trade and, therefore, offer a springboard to the dreams of economic recovery of Kabul. Contrary to short term interest directed actions of extra regional parties that they intervene in time and again, Pakistan is a stable voice that has no short-term geopolitical interests to pursue, and instead, operates on the long-term interests of peace and prosperity in the region. Moreover, this is a shared boundary that is special to the World since it houses shared religious backgrounds of Islam among the communities and common ethnicity like the Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras.
These bonding of family, tribes and cultures cut across the drawn political boundaries and forge an incomparable human connection that is out of the understanding of division. Such connections make possible a level of mutual understanding between the citizens of the two nations that is unequalled in other parts of South Asia. This grass root fraternity most of the time holds cordiality and cross border collaboration, even during serious political tension between the two capitals, a base that may make way to future diplomacy that restores peace. Not the geopolitics but centuries of human history are reflected in these relationships so that the Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship is not an alliance imposed but a relationship of natural cohesion.
This closer attachment has always been expressed in the policy of Pakistan towards Afghanistan. Irrespective of who has been in power in Kabul whether monarch, communists, mujahideen, Taliban, republicans, to name a few, it has been a open door to Pakistan whose policy has always been peace, stability as well as mutual development. This policy of goodwill has stood strong even against the provocations, disinformation propaganda and frequent betrayals due to foreign interference especially by India interfering with successive regimes in Afghanistan. There is no secret to the role India has played to create suspicion between Kabul and Islamabad and this malignant influence has worked hard to kill attempts of pure Afghan-Pakistani cooperation several times. Nevertheless, the recent provocation has not enabled Pakistan to abdicate its desire to dialogue, peace in the region, and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan. It has a principled and not a partisan view of Afghanistan, the peaceful, secure, and prosperous Afghanistan is the national interest and the moral duty of Pakistan.
Maybe there is no other nation who could boast of such capacity to take in refugees as Pakistan. To be precise, Pakistan has hosted over four million Afghan refugees in excess of forty years, the longest protracted refugee scenario since World War II, giving displaced generations of Afghanistan a secure shelter, access to education, health and the chance to provide a source of livelihood. Soviet invasion of 1979, the US-led war on terror and the Taliban coming back to rule in August 2021, Pakistan has never turned its back to its Afghani brothers and sisters despite the international community s failing to materialize on burden sharing promises through and through. After the disorganized exit of the West in Kabul, as the majority of nations defaulted on their promises to resettle the Afghan nationals who had helped the NATO as well as had worked as civilian contractors with them, Pakistan empathically and quietly accepted another one million Afghan migrants between legalized and un-documented citizens without any global publicity or the reassuring compensation. This humanitarian action shows that Pakistan does not have vested interest in Afghanistan but the tie it has is based on real brotherhood and moral duty.