Dr Muhammad Khan
A day-long visit of Prime Minister Imran to Afghanistan was the major breakthrough in the bilateral relationship of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was the most significant and long awaited visit of Pakistani Premier, ever since he took over as country’s chief executive in 2018. The political analysts greatly appreciate this visit from the perspective of restoration of trust between both brotherly states. Indeed, despite obscured will to cooperate and collaborate, there remained a trust deficit between Islamabad and Kabul for decades now. The visit of Prime Minister Imran khan is indeed a new beginning towards furtherance of relationship between Islamabad and Kabul. This visit was preceded by a series of visits from top Afghan officials, parliamentarians and Mr Abdullah Abdullah, the Head of Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation. In a way, lot of homework has undergone before materialization of this high-level visit. Officials on both sides reached to complete consensus for resolving the bilateral differences and giving peace a chance to prevail in Afghanistan.
The major focus of the visit was on two aspects; bridging the trust deficit between Islamabad and Kabul and jointly working for the peace in Afghanistan through promotion of reconciliation process between Taliban and Afghan Government. Pakistani Premier said during the joint press conference that, “We notice with concern that the level of violence despite the talks in Qatar, is rising.” He also offered the needed assistance to Pakistan; “Pakistan will do everything, whatever is possible; we will do to help reduce this violence and in fact move towards a ceasefire”. Pakistan has supported the on-going peace between Taliban and Afghan Government. Earlier, Pakistan greatly contributed brokering the agreement between United States and Taliban on the request of President Trump. Pakistani efforts for the restoration of peace in Afghanistan are based on two salient features; sincerity and compulsions.
The element of sincerity rooted from the social obligations of Pakistan, since a huge number of Afghan refugees are still living in various parts of Pakistan, owing to prevailing unrest in that country. The continuing unrest in Afghanistan may force more people to take refuge in Pakistan, as happened in the past. On the other hand restoration of peace in Afghanistan has become a compulsion for Pakistan. Pakistan has realized that, violence and unrest in Afghanistan has greatly contributed towards promotion of militancy and terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has allowed the militant’s inflow into bordering districts of Pakistan from Afghan soil. Therefore peace in Afghanistan has become a compulsion for the peace in Pakistan. This was clearly stated by Prime Minister Imran Khan in Kabul. He said, “The idea of visiting at a time when violence is increasing [in Afghanistan] is to assure you, President Ghani, that the people and the government of Pakistan have only one concern; peace in Afghanistan. The Afghan people have suffered for four decades.”
Unfortunately, just two days after this historic and promising visit of Pakistani Prime Minister, Kabul was attacked once again with barrage of rockets. Analysing from the past practices, the attack was launched primarily to achieve two objectives. One; it is a clear warning to President Ashraf Ghani for his growing amity and intimacy with Pakistan in the pursuance of peace with Taliban. Two; blaming Taliban for the attack, thus convincing the Ashraf Ghani Government to part-ways from the on-going peace process between Taliban and Government. Similar attacks were carried out in Afghanistan once President Ghani visited Pakistan in 2014, 2015 and 2019. During these visits, both sides made lot of promises for peace in Afghanistan and improvement in their bilateral relationship. Through those attacks, President Ghani was badly betrayed and forced to issue statements against Pakistan.
The rocket attack in Kabul is a direct attack on the on-going intra-Afghan dialogue process, taking place at Doha, Qatar and growing Pak-Afghan bilateralism. Some groups within Afghanistan are against the reconciliation process with Taliban. Then the Afghan spying network (NDS) is totally dictated by Indian RAW. Still there are five senior level RAW advisors, formulating and controlling policies of NDS. India is staunchly against the reconciliation process between Taliban and Afghan Govt. Besides, India is against the growing Pak-Afghan relationship too. In the past, NDS and RAW operatives have been carrying out massive attacks in Afghanistan whenever any Pak-Afghan negotiation took place or any efforts for peace initiated by Kabul regime. Indeed, peace in Afghanistan does not suit India, which have been taking advantage of instability in that country for its own geopolitical objectives.
There is yet another critical dimension of this attack. President Trump has forced the Pentagon to further reduce the level of US troops in Afghanistan as agreed in the US-Taliban agreement, inked on February 29, 2020. The US troops level has to be reduced to 2500 by end of 2020. Since this agreement was against the wishes of Pentagon, therefore, it is believed that, Donald Trump has fired his Defence Secretary, Mark Esper, who was resisting the move on behest of Pentagon. Besides, Esper was against the Trump’s policy of deploying active military soldiers during anti-racial protests in US. Indeed, Pentagon desire to continue its military presence in Afghanistan for protecting its strategic objectives in this region.
Since the US President elect, Joe Biden may concede to the Pentagon plan of keeping US troops in Afghanistan, therefore, Trump is in hurry to implement his proposal before handing the power to Biden on January 20, 2021. In the same backdrop, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Doha, Qatar on 21 November 2020 to encourage the peace negotiations between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban. As a way forward, President Ashraf Ghani and his Government must conceive, comprehend and understand the strategy of those forces which act as spoilers in Afghan peace and reconciliation process. After knowing their motives, Ghani Government must take stern actions against them, so that the ongoing intra-Afghan reconciliation process remains on track.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
