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PAKISTAN’S RELATION WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES.

PART 2: Pakistan relation with Afghanistan

Author: Karishma Lalani

When we go through the history of Pakistan, much focus and attention is given to the India-Pakistan rivalry. This had actually overshadowed the mixed relationship of friendship, rivalry and suspiciousness between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There had been ups and downs in the Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship since the inception of Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan shares his north-western borders with Afghanistan and it is one of Pakistan’s most tactically important neighbors. The purpose of writing this paper is; to highlight various issues going on between the two countries in the last sixty years. Even though, Afghanistan is a Muslim country, most of the time since independence, it has practiced unfriendly policies against Pakistan. It was the only state which opposed Pakistan’s entry in the united nation organization (U.N.O). Immediately after the independence of Pakistan there were two major reasons causing conflictual relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These were the issue of Durand Line and the issue of pushtunistan. However, Pakistan rejected both of the claims made by the Afghani government. According to Hussain, K., Afghanistan’s refusal to accept the historically set border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, also known as the Durand Line, as the legitimately recognized border between them has been the root problem since 1947. The Durand line between Afghanistan and Pakistan was drawn in 1893. According to Rabbani, M.I., it was drawn by a contract which was signed by the government of British India and the government of Afghanistan. The contract consisted of a few provisions. According to that the Afghan government had agreed that they will not interfere in the areas that formed part of the Indian territory (now existing Pakistan) and situated on the other side of the Durand Line. But unfortunately after the independence of Pakistan the government of Afghanistan refused to acknowledge the Durand Line as the boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a result, the relations between two countries were badly affected due to the constant conflict over Durand line. The other issue was of pushtunistan. Afghanistan initiated a propaganda campaign against Pakistan through its press and media. According to Rabbani, M.I., the main purpose of this campaign was to make Pakistan agree to the demand of pushtunistan. The Afghanistan government argues that the pushtuns living on the either side of the Durand line i.e. Afghanistan and Pakistan must have the right of autonomy, as they were pressurized and separated from their motherland Afghanistan; also they claim that there should be one nation for all the pushtuns. According to Hussain, K., Pakistan states that the pushtuns voted for Pakistan in the 1947 referendum in Peshawar, thus it denies Afghanistan’s claim that the pushtuns were forcibly separated. Moreover, President Mohammed Ayub Khan in his book Friends not Master (as cited by Hussain, k.,) says, “They (Afghan) had defined pushtunistan in variety of ways, as a separate independent state, as an autonomous area, as a unit within Pakistan to be called pushtunistan, and sometimes only as a demand for reference to be made to the pathans….”, thus it reflects that the Afghanistan government was not clear and were ambiguous regarding their demand of pushtunistan. According to Hussain, K., the demand for pushtunistan had lost its impetus when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. However there is a high risk that this issue can affect Pakistan and Afghanistan relationships in upcoming future. Despite of these ongoing conflicts, efforts had been made from both the countries to normalize their relations. According to Rabbani, M.I., the leaders of the two countries exchanged visits for reconciliation and development of friendly relations. For example, in August 1956 the President of Pakistan, Iskander Mirza, had an official visit to Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Prime minister of Afghanistan, Sardar Daud Khan also paid a visit to Pakistan in November 1959. Similarly, there were many other visits paid by the leaders of the two countries and they were held in friendly and enriching atmosphere. Moreover according to Hussain, K., several other steps were taken to stabilize the relations of the two countries which included the commencement of air services, the establishment of a direct radio link between Karachi and Kabul and the entry of both countries into the Transit Trade agreement of May 1958, under which no custom duty had to be paid on imported goods destined for Afghanistan. All these visits, negotiations and steps had good outcomes, but those were temporary and were affected by the ongoing issues and conflicts between the two countries. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. According to Hussain, K., in this period Pakistan supported the Afghanis and helped them to control the Soviet communism. Pakistan utilized this opportunity to eliminate the threat of Soviet Union from Afghanistan and consequently establishing friendly relations with him. Pakistan along with assistance of other states worked hard and was able to manage the withdrawal of Soviet Union form Afghanistan. Moreover, even though it was a huge threat to the country’s economy, Pakistan had given shelter to millions of Afghan refugees at that time and still continues to do so. Even after doing all this, the aim of having a friendly relation with Afghanistan was not achieved. It was because of the fact that due to some reasons there were problems in the establishment of the Afghanistan government after Soviet withdrawal and it ended up into having a civil war. Still Pakistan didn’t loose hope and it was Pakistan’s objective of having a friendly relation with Afghanistan that made Pakistan’s Afghan policy makers strive to continue their involvement in Pakistan. According to Hussain, K., after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan a number of factors complicated Afghanistan’s situation and created a political vacuum in the region. The instability in Afghanistan provided opportunity to external elements like Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan which created conflicts and lead to another civil war in the region. This war had turned Afghanistan into a failed state, with no central rule, no proper mechanism of power and no security. According to Hussain, K., the emergence of Taliban was the result of this war. The Talibans were the poor Afghani students, many of whom were the orphans of the Afghan Jihadis. The purpose of Taliban was to rebuild Afghanistan. Pakistan decided to help and support the Taliban. The reasons for this decision were Pakistan’s objective to establish friendly relations with Afghanistan and to create a corridor for trade with Asia. According to Hussain, K., slowly and gradually the Taliban were able conquer almost 80% of the Afghanistan and had become a strong independent power. The Taliban had an extreme and unusual interpretation of the Islamic law that shocked many other Afghans and the Muslim world. As a result the international community withdraw their relations with Taliban. However, Pakistan continued to back the Talibans. For a short period of time, this decision proved fruitful for Pakistan as it was able to achieve its objectives. But soon after Pakistan realized that the Taliban had turned into an independent regime and it was difficult for Pakistan to manage them. They realized that by giving support to Taliban Pakistan had to face the brutal consequence of being isolated from the international community who was against Taliban. The incident of 11 September was another important contributing factor in the estranged relationship of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This incident had posed stress on Pakistan and it had to take a U-turn, as a result Pakistan downgraded its recognition of Taliban. The various operations of Taliban against different communities had resulted in the perception that all the Taliban are terrorists and Afghanistan is giving shelter to these terrorists. Consequently, America fought a war against terrorism and Pakistan had no other option than supporting them. According to Gul, N., Due to the US led war the terrorist activities greatly increased. The US believed that the coalition of forces inside Afghanistan was carried out by Al-Qaida hiding in the mountainous regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Pakistan Afghanistan border. Around 80,000 troops were deployed by Pakistan in this region, which resulted in heavy clashes between the troops and the tribal people. Pakistan’s support to US in this regard resulted in opposition from different political forces within the country. After all this, there was also a sudden increase in terrorist act in the country which was thought to be the reaction of the Al-Qaida towards Pakistan’s hostile attitude. As a result Pakistan suffered from political instability within the country. According to Gundu, R.K., and Schaffer, T.C., the greatest controversy centers on the role of Pakistan in facilitating the Taliban insurgency. As the Talibans were Muslims, there notorious operations had made the international community to make a perception that Islam is a religion of terror and terrorism. As Pakistan is also a Muslim country and is the neighbor of Afghanistan, it was thought that Pakistan provides shelter to the terrorists and is giving them opportunity, so that they can remain hidden from the outside world and plan operations towards them. However, Pakistani officials strongly deny any involvement with the Taliban. Even after all this, Pakistan had done much to stabilize conditions in Afghanistan. Durrani, M., in his speech at the National Defense University, states that Pakistan had taken many steps to stabilize the condition of Afghanistan. Pakistan had killed over 600 Al-Qaida operatives and arrested over 1000 terrorists. Pakistan has given all the possible facilities for the passage of goods on railways to Afghanistan. Pakistan had actively participated in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan. Despite of its own fiscal constraints, Pakistan had pledged $ 300 million, out of which $ 125 million has already been distributed. This project assisted by Pakistan relates to infrastructure, health, education, transport and agriculture.

Although history reveals that supporting Afghanistan has always been destructing to Pakistan, it still remains to offer a hand of friendship and support to Afghanistan. The war on terrorism had greatly influenced the relationship of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Much needs to be done to stabilize the relationship between the two countries. The new government of Pakistan needs to play its role. There is a large scope to have negotiation with friendly Taliban forces. The help and support which was given previously by both countries to each other need to be continued to strengthen the relationship. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are Muslim countries and the exploitation of their relationships in terms of the terrorism has disrupted the image of Islam in front of the international community. Therefore, these two countries need to work together in term of eliminating terrorism and correcting the image of Islam, clarifying that Islam is the religion of peace and not terror. Rather than blaming each other, both the countries need to stabilize their internal matters, so that they can individually contribute towards betterment of their relationships.