Muhammad Shoaib Khan
In 1947, British India was divided, and two independent countries emerged on the world map: Pakistan and India. At that time, Afghanistan refused to accept the Durand Line agreement and claimed that it was nullified after the division of the subcontinent and had no legal means.
The then Afghan government further demanded to include Balochistan and NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) as part of the Afghan territory because of Pashtun ethnicity and tribal culture. Pakistan rejected this nonsensical demand because most Pashtun tribes were part of Pakistan instead of Afghanistan. This resulted in the decision that the Durand Line agreement could not be nullified. This initiated the bitter relationship between the two countries since the birth of Pakistan.
The abhorrence of Afghanistan kept increasing, which was evident because Afghanistan objected to Pakistan’s admission to the United Nations. On the other hand, USSR expansionist design kept increasing to reach warm waters. Their way to reach warm waters through Afghan territory was resisted by the Taliban, resulting in the defeat of the USSR in the late twentieth century.
Once again, Afghanistan accused Pakistan of backing the Taliban against the soviets. The USSR-Afghanistan war eventually ended, resulting in central Asian states on the world map. This whole incident added bitterness to Pak-Afghan relations.
After the Afghan war, Pakistan recognized the Taliban government as it was the voice of the Afghan people. Later, after the 9/11 attack in the US, the then US President George W Bush wages war against Afghanistan, claiming that the Twin Tower attack was planned within Afghan territory.
The US justified their invasion on Afghan soil and termed it as ‘War on Terror’ in which NATO and western countries supported the US stance. Due to this attack, the Afghan community was displaced internally and sought refuge in other countries.
At that time, Pakistan helped the Afghan people by opening its borders to facilitate Afghanis on a humanitarian basis. Even then, the Afghan government did not recognize this humane act of Pakistan.
Pakistan also suffered from the war on terror because of the shared border. Instead of building good relations with Pakistan, they formerly maintained relations with enemies of Pakistan.
Thus, the Afghan territory was offered to help India destabilize Pakistan, as it was also confessed by an Indian Spy caught in Pakistan. For this purpose, India has the highest number of consulates in Afghanistan, violating diplomatic norms.
Behind the curtain, the performance of India in the destabilization of Pakistan is not hidden from the international community. Pakistan has provided proof on multiple occasions to Afghan officials to prove the role of India in sabotaging Pak-Afghan relations.
Afghanistan is a pivotal part of South Asia, considered the ‘Heart of Asia,’ so its stability and peace are essential to Asia and Pakistan.
Several times, Pakistani territory was attacked by Afghan forces and insurgent groups that killed several civilians along with soldiers.
The Pakistan government registered its protest diplomatically against Afghan forces, stating these acts will create hurdles in maintaining healthy relations among both countries. Nevertheless, it is a long debate why Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are bitter rather than friendly.
However, now both countries should figure out that external forces are hiding behind the curtain and trying to destabilize the friendly relations between the two neighboring states.
Afghanistan should recognize Pakistan’s efforts to maintain peace within their territory and be obliged to facilitate their refugees within Pakistan for almost the last two decades. Now Pakistan is trying to utilize every diplomatic forum for Afghan Taliban recognition and forming an inclusive government in Afghanistan.
This will help overcome the humanitarian and economic crisis that Afghans face nowadays. UN also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts in this regard.
At last, everyone knows that Afghanistan needs Pakistan’s help and support to resolve its crisis, and for this purpose, Afghans have to ignore the role of spoilers to lead towards prosperity.
After Kabul fell in 2021 and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban took over the Afghan government, which is not recognized by the international community so far. On the other hand, Pakistan facilitated the Afghan peace process between the US and the Afghan Taliban held in Doha.
Though the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the Pak-Afghan border (Durand Line) emerged again, and India is trying to exploit the situation again so that a rift could be created between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.
Due to the porous Pak-Afghan border, terrorism, smuggling, human trafficking, and infiltration created a rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On several occasions, Pakistan officially demanded action from Afghan authorities against border infiltration, but the Afghan authorities did not address the issue.
The initial plan of border fencing was started in 2005. However, there were difficulties at that time, so in 2017, Pakistan started a speedy mechanism to fence its border with Afghanistan to prevent terrorism, drug trafficking, refugees, illegal immigration, smuggling, and infiltration from across the border.
The writer is a political and media analyst who writes on international political issues
