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| Afghanistan |
| The growing wall of distrust |
| 2017-12-21 |
| [DAWN] IT is not just about the hostility of the government in Kabul; more troubling is the fact that the adverse sentiments in Afghanistan towards Pakistan are deeply entrenched in the public. The indignation has heightened over the past years, with most people in Kabul blaming Pakistain for their suffering. Those feelings are especially evident in urban and educated sections of Afghan society. There are very few who see Pakistain in a positive light. This was very clear during my interaction last week with young students at a private university in Kabul. Education is one area that has seen massive progress over the last one decade in this country, despite worsening political instability and the spreading insurgency. Hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in more than one dozen universities in the city ‐ a marked transformation from the days of the retrogressive Afghan Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... rule. Most students I interacted with in a seminar shared similar views about Pakistain being a villain that is responsible for many of Afghanistan’s problems. Among the audience, there were many who were either born in Pakistain or whose parents had lived there as refugees for decades. Many complained about Pakistain supporting the bully boyz responsible for the death of thousands of Afghans. Distrust of Pakistain is palpable. It is hard to find anyone in the Afghan capital willing to speak in favour of Pakistain. Ironically, there are many in the cabinet and several high-ranking officials in the Afghan government who spent a large part of their lives in Pakistain and benefited from its hospitality. The resentment is not restricted to any particular ethnic group ‐ it is across the board. Even former Taliban officials who now live in Kabul have little empathy for the country which once patronised them. One is not sure, however, about public sentiments in other parts of the country. Of course, it is expedient for our civilian and military leadership to dismiss these growing anti-Pakistain sentiments in Afghanistan as merely inspired by ’enemy forces’. This state of denial is, however, not helpful in improving our image. Surely, one cannot deny that there has been a concerted campaign to slander Pakistain and make it a scapegoat for everything that has gone wrong in the war-torn country across the border. Yet one must not gloss over our flawed policies and attitude that are stoking public scepticism inside Afghanistan. One of the major reasons for Pakistain’s growing isolation is that our entire Afghan policy is built around a skewed security paradigm while diplomacy has taken a back seat. Understandably, four decades of conflict in the region and Pakistain’s position as a front-line state has enhanced the role of the security agencies. But the formulation and implementation of policy should not be left entirely to the security establishment. In fact, there is great need for diplomacy to take charge in times of conflict. Our foreign policy has suffered hugely because of its direction being determined solely by a national security paradigm that must be corrected in light of the fast-changing geopolitics of the region. Indeed, past baggage and Afghanistan being turned into a centre of a new Great Game does not make it easy for our policymakers to tread the tricky path. But sticking to the old ways may not help deal with the challenges. Irrespective of whichever government is in power in Kabul we need to work with it and to respect its illusory sovereignty. Our obsession with a ’friendly’ Pakhtun-dominated government in the past has hugely contributed to public resentment against Pakistain. |
| Posted by:Fred |