Afghan Pakistan relations has seen a lots of ebbs and flows in the past and the last year has been quite reminiscent of it. Good gestures from both sides ending in a deadlock is quite familiar when it comes to the love hate relations between both countries. The problem actually begins when both sides fail to accept their mistakes in the past and reflect upon them. This is a totally bogus argument that some elements in Afghanistan hate Pakistan because of Afghan War of 80s. If we go back a little, Afghanistan didn’t have much of a liking of Pakistan and even supported India diplomatically in Indo-Pak wars. If for the sake of convenience, someone ignores history and puts all the blame on the Afghan War, will be very injustice to the fact that even Pakistan has suffered in the crosshair of making Afghanistan a chessboard for international politics. This responsibility is however not completely upon Afghanistan. Pakistan has also played its due role in worsening the situation. From total mismanagement in the refugees issue to pushing some anti-Soviet forces against the wall in Afghan War has sowed a lot of hatred among some factions in Afghanistan. Abdullah Abdullah who was then the Second in command of Ahmad Shah Masood of northern alliance was pushed out of Kabul by Pakistan backed elements which surely created an atmosphere of ill will for Pakistan and that can still be seen in the politics of Abdullah Abdullah and his allies.
On the other hand, some nationalists also played a vital role in perplexing the situation with their non-practical demands of Lwey Pakhtoonistan or in simple words demanding Pakistan to accede majority of what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to Afghanistan. What the nationalists must realize that mere emotional frenzies cannot change the geography of a region, rather a stable country is required to place its claim on a particular piece of land. Which in case of Afghanistan is a sorry state of affair over last many decades.
It all started with goodwill gestures and an ISI-NDS pact, the first of its kind in decades as an icebreaker but few rogue elements were not happy with these peace initiatives and pulled skeletons from the closets to revive the bone of contention among both countries. The motives of these moves can be looked upon in the context of one of our neighboring country wanting a seat on the table of post War on Terror’s negotiations despite having no stake apparently. Blame games have begun and may end up in sabotaging negotiations that could have eventually ended up in establishing long-lasting peace in the region. Both countries have to realize that peace is a need of both the countries and shouldn’t let a third party ruin it. A huge vacuum will be created after War of Terror and many would want to fill that vacuum and it will be better for the major stakeholders i.e. Pakistan and Afghanistan, to decide about filling the void in prior before things get messy and violent which will be damaging to both the countries.
