The wise son of Afghanistan

Pakistan has had complicated relationships with its neighbours since independence. The morning after freedom, on August 15, 1947 it was understandable that this should be the case. Pakistan was a new, revolutionary idea. It was, one of the greatest innovations in statehood at the time.
Bold, new ideas threaten existing orders, and the South and Central Asian regions were shaken up by the emergence of a new word in the Persian, Hindi, Turkic and Arabic tradition that had been non-existent till then: Pakistan.
Critics and honest patriots know that the reality of Pakistan has been much more complex than the initial impulse and idea. It was shaken up badly by Partition in 1971 and since then mostly by the contradictions of its own making and, sometimes, the conspiracies of its enemies. The most recent and best example of the threat to Pakistan is the alphabet soup of non-state terrorist actors, some once-coddled by us, some entirely the creation of clever spooks taking advantage of our mistakes.
With India, our relationship flickers with promise one month, and burns with bitterness and bile the next. The Indians have enjoyed the run of play for some while, and it isn’t likely that they can ever understand what it’s like to be Pakistan. The Iranians have allowed themselves to become party to a proxy war with Saudi Arabia on our soil that has produced little good.
The Chinese want to help us, but it isn’t clear that this is a project entirely blessed by benevolence. The future of Pak-Sino relations, to be truly as ‘deep as the oceans and higher than the mountains’, must be based on more than market-driven transactions. In all three cases, Pakistan is surrounded by three countries that can try to understand us, but will always struggle.
There is one country that can truly appreciate what Pakistan has experienced, especially in the last decade. That country is Afghanistan. Its own troubles, now deeper than four decades, have been intricately linked to decisions we made here in Pakistan. Our troubles since 2001 are intimately located in decisions made by people in Kabul, Kunar, Nuristan and beyond. Afghanistan’s future is bright only if the Durand Line is peaceful, stable, and full of trucks going in both directions, carrying things that people buy, (and things that can’t blow up). Pakistan’s future is bright only if Afghanistan’s can be.
The contrast between bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan versus Pakistan’s relationship with any other country is quite simple. Other countries can just say ‘talk to the hand’ and hang up on us. Prime Minister Modi has done exactly that. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will struggle mightily to justify demonstrations of affection for PM Modi at Kathmandu later this month, though that is what may be best for South Asia. China’s generosity and energetic investments in Pakistan are not guaranteed to flow forever. And Iran seems to be doing just fine without us.
The one neighbour that cannot survive a bad ending for Pakistan is Afghanistan. This makes Afghanistan a stakeholder in Pakistani stability, sovereignty and prosperity.
It is also the case that Pakistan can no longer afford a dysfunctional Afghanistan. It never could – but the national consensus around this reality that has developed since 2009, has slowly, but surely now filtered right through the inner sanctums of places that matter for foreign policy in Pakistan: the Pakistani political leadership, the Foreign Office, the General Headquarters, and Aabpara.
Hindsight is not always 20/20. During the Gen Musharraf era, this country suffered at the hands of an inexplicable prejudice that the general had against Hamid Karzai. Karzai was no angel – there are very few angels left in this region. But he was the globally recognised leader of his country. Musharraf left no stone unturned in infusing the bilateral relationship with contempt.
It didn’t help matters that the Kandahari Taliban were obdurate friends and partners to Pakistan, and that in October 2001, Pakistan turned on some of them quicker than a Jalalabad minute. Most of all, it still doesn’t help matters that old friendships in the highland badlands of Fata and the Pakistan-Afghanistan international border, die hard. Really, really hard. So the Haqqani Network continues to be a disruptive presence, if not operational today, then in the form of a ghost, haunting every bilateral and multilateral conversation Pakistanis have about Afghanistan.
It also didn’t help matters that some Afghans thought that the Isaf/Nato sun would shine forever, and that somehow, the fact of Pakistan’s size and strength would somehow be diminished by really good storytelling. That somehow, if Lara Logan really believed that Pakistanis are bad people, that this would fix Afghanistan’s problems.
Luckily, the late Bush and early Obama years are behind us. Amrullah Saleh is ten years older today than he was in 2004. Peter Galbraith is mostly retired, as is General Eikenberry. General Musharraf doesn’t get to insult Afghan leaders anymore. And Pakistan has gone through a sustained period of almost five years of intelligent, proactive and compassionate diplomacy.
Pakistan has invested in relationships not just with the Kandahari Taliban, but also with the Presidential Palace in Kabul. And not just with Pakhtuns, but with Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras. In 2012, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that “Kabul is the most important capital in the world for Pakistan”. She backed it up with five visits to Kabul in the space of fifteen months.
The PPP, ANP, PML-N, MQM and PTI leaderships all found ways to support the diplomatic push with Afghanistan. Rumours of a lack of trust between the military and the civilians are never without a grain of truth in Pakistan, but the army and ISI leadership has been a supporter of a better, more holistic relationship with the legitimate Afghan government in Kabul, slowly at first, and increasingly, more readily. General Raheel Sharif visited Kabul recently, as good a sign that the confidence people in Raiwind have in President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah could also be matched by folks in Rawalpindi.
Perhaps the brightest moment in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations in recent times however isn’t anything Pakistan has done, but something the Afghan people did. They elected two of the wisest sons Afghanistan has ever produced to lead them. For all the negativity of those that have commented on the national unity government that President Ghani and CEO Abdullah have formed, almost everything it has done so far has been marked by wisdom and patience. For those that have followed Ghani’s career as an aid worker, academic and public intellectual, we expected nothing less.
Pakistan must continue to support Afghanistan to the extent that it can, while securing its own interests. These interests have been served brilliantly by a tradition of diplomatic excellence in Kabul established by Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq, and being continued by Ambassador Syed Abrar Hussain and his team of officers and staff.
Decades of pettiness between the two nations are giving way to grand new possibilities. President Ghani’s visit is a chance for us to allow ourselves to dream and be ‘over-the-top’ optimistic. God knows both countries need and deserve it. No amount of warmth will be too much as we welcome Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan.
The writer is an analyst and commentator.