Positive signs

Things are changing on the Afghan front with the Pakistan government looking committed to improving relations between the two countries. Once again, on Monday, Pakistan reasserted its commitment to the stability of the current Afghan government led by President Ghani. Speaking at the inauguration of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process conference on Monday, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz promised that Pakistan would treat the enemies of Afghanistan as its own enemies. While he did not name the Taliban, Aziz said Pakistan supported an end to a conflict that has been raging for the last three decades. He asserted that Pakistan had asked the Afghan Taliban to return to the negotiating table. The good thing is that Pakistan has retreated from its old position on Afghanistan. Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have improved after President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan in 2014.
In another positive development, a high-level meeting of top government and security officials decided to ignore negative comments attributed to President Ghani with respect to ties between the two countries. The fact that attendees included Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif is significant. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Afghanistan this month was discussed and understood to be quite successful. However, the meeting continued the recent precedent of blaming India for attempting to destabilise Pakistan-Afghanistan relations through former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. What is most significant is Sartaj Aziz’s acknowledgment that three decades of conflict are being resolved. The longstanding issues between the two countries will take time and commitment to mend. Both countries, for now, have recognised that mutual trust is important for securing their future against the Taliban insurgencies they both face. This threat became all the more glaring for Afghanistan on Wednesday after a failed Taliban raid on a diplomatic guesthouse. Cooperation between us and the Afghans is important if regional peace is to be achieved.