News Analysis
LAHORE: Pakistan’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz’s pleas for a “holistic approach” couldn’t stand the joint targeted offensive by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Modi against what they both dubbed as “sponsor of terrorism”.
Blame game, rather than constructive engagement, was the hallmark of the Heart of Asia Conference on Afghanistan in Lahore’s once twin-city of Amritsar. Except for casual exchanges, the PM’s adviser on foreign affairs was denied the courtesy of a bilateral exchange on the sidelines with any official of the host country. Special Russian envoy to Kabul had to lament the use of a multilateral forum for bilateral mudslinging.
Mocking Pakistan’s generous financial assistance of USD 500 million, Mr Ghani sarcastically advised Islamabad to spend it on stopping cross-border terrorism. In quite blunt and categorical terms he held Pakistan responsible for the Afghan Taliban’s ongoing offensive against Kabul and accused it of providing sanctuary and all kinds of backing to the terrorists. As evidence, he quoted a Taliban leader as saying that “if Pakistan had stopped its support, they would not have survived for a month”.
After Islamabad was handed a charge sheet by the Afghan president, it was Mr Modi’s turn to lambast his next door neighbour for fomenting trouble and “sponsor of terrorism”. With the conflict in J&K in mind, he not only termed Pakistan sponsored terrorism as the “biggest threat” to the region and called for determined action against what he usually describes as the “epicenter of terrorism”. The declaration issued by the moot, attended by 40 delegates and guests from 15 countries, minced no words in pinpointing the Haqani network, Laskar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad as the source of terrorist trouble— purportedly sponsored by Pakistan against Afghanistan and India, without however, mentioning Pakistan by name.
What Mr Modi failed to achieve at BRICS, he managed at the Heart of Asia Conference: To diplomatically isolate Pakistan and that too on Afghanistan—where Pakistan has been thanklessly stuck for over three decades. Despite rendering tremendous sacrifices and hosting over three million Afghan refugees and wasting infinite resources, Pakistan is being accused by President Ghani who like President Karzai could not have won elections without Islamabad’s support. Instead of attaining the mirage of ‘strategic depth’, the Afghan rulers have almost turned into the ‘fifth column’ of hegemonic India against Pakistan.
This is undoubtedly a stark failure of our ambitious and unsustainable security paradigm that has failed across both eastern and western fronts. The tremendous price we paid for the Afghan Taliban wasn’t worth it. They used us and left us in the cold to take the blame without even allowing us the courtesy to mediate peace and reconciliation. Similarly, the non-state actors that we sponsored to ‘liberate’ Kashmir became counter-productive and give a bad name to the Kashmiris’ indigenous democratic struggle against tyranny.
The “malign influence”, according to Commander of US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson, of Pakistan, Russia and Iran over the Taliban-led insurgency threaten international efforts aimed at stabilising Afghanistan. He said, “We are concerned about the external enablement of the insurgent or terrorist groups inside Afghanistan; in particular where they enjoy sanctuary or support from outside governments.” When President Ghani directly referred to the Afghan Taliban’s sanctuaries in Pakistan and PM Modi spoke about “externally induced” terrorism, they were perhaps taking a clue from what the commander of Nato’s Resolute Support Mission for Afghanistan has been saying these days. It seems that the Afghan scene is taking yet another dangerous and destabilising turn and Pakistan must not be tempted to plunge into yet another big-powers’ game.
What is most ironic about the Ghani-Modi tirade is that whether it is Kabul-Delhi connectivity, Central Asia-South Asia energy and infrastructure corridors, peace in Afghanistan or the resolution of conflict in Kashmir, it can’t be done without bringing Pakistan on board. It is not only Pakistan that must wrap up its now counter-productive non-state actors’ enterprises; Afghanistan and India should also bring to an end the proxy wars that they are running against Pakistan. Without a regional détente, there cannot be peace in South Asia. If there has to be a detente between Pakistan and Afghanistan they have to accept the inviolability of their borders and jointly get rid of the terrorists wanted by either side.
Instead of throwing their respective core issues in each others’ faces, both Islamabad and Delhi must opt for a process that addresses each others’ concerns. Rather than getting stuck up in their historical animosity, there is no option other than resuming talks. Let us bid farewell to the notion that the loss of one side is the gain of the other in a most interdependent and contagious region where one is doomed to suffer from the plight of the other.