Pakistan’s role in Afghan peace

EDITORIAL:Daily Times

A trilateral meeting of the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UK in Kabul has reiterated the need for an Afghan-led solution to the conflict, with Pakistan playing a crucial role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf extended his cooperation to iron out the differences amongst warring factions for ultimate peace in Afghanistan, something that the US has been working on with little success so far. Underscoring the need to combat militant forces working to destroy both Afghanistan and Pakistan, British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that Pakistan and Afghanistan face a common enemy, which calls for a united front between all stakeholders opposed to terrorism. Lately, Pakistan has been experiencing cross-border attacks from Afghan territory that have killed a number of its soldiers. The responsibility for these attacks has been claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has been largely driven out of Pakistan in the 2009 military operation and has since gathered strength and support by aligning with its mentors, the Afghan Haqqani network. There are fears that once the US and NATO withdraw from the region, the Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani network, may make a bid to regain power in Kabul. Though the US and NATO have attempted to allay these fears by ruling out a return of the Afghan Taliban to power, given the discordant history of Afghanistan, ruling out this scenario or a protracted civil war is not possible. After four decades of continuous warfare, and with neither side in a position to win a complete victory, the only way forward is a negotiated political solution. Pakistan too has lost thousands of its soldiers and civilians in a war that spilled over and has by now the whole country in its grip, an unintended consequence of our interventions in Afghanistan stretching back over four decades. Coming back to the conciliatory tone adopted by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, can the Pakistani leadership, civilian and military, measure up to the expectations of our allies across the border? Does the political leadership have the will and clout to persuade the military establishment for a shift from a proxy war strategy to a negotiated peaceful solution to Afghanistan? Or will the prime minister, like his predecessor, be found wanting despite his sweet words in Kabul? Pakistan has been long held responsible for not wanting peace in Afghanistan and supporting a reimposition of Taliban rule in Kabul by force. Time and again there have been allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in shoring up the Haqqani network to carry out high profile attacks in Afghanistan. Even the cessation of intelligence sharing with Pakistan on drone attacks can be traced back to the alleged tipping off of targets before the drones arrived. This proxy war strategy is bound to produce even greater blowback for Pakistan than the recent series of attacks on Pakistan’s security forces and key installations from across the border. This is the common enemy that Cameron referred to, signifying an understanding of the internal nexus between the so-called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. In this background, a political solution implies the Afghan Taliban being persuaded to trade the language of weapons for the weapon of language, a development that may lead to the reconciled Afghan Taliban being able to lean on their Pakistani counterparts to desist from their violent ways. Needless to say, unless Afghanistan settles down and Pakistan benefits from such a peace dividend, both countries and the whole region will suffer in terms of development and progress.