Pakistan faces grave internal and external challenges as Talban continue to advance. Earlier, retreating Afghan soldiers had taken refuge in neighbouring Tajikistan. Now in order to escape capture, a number of them have crossed over to Pakistan where they have been taken into custody.
Briefing the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf presented a grim picture of the Afghan situation, warning that the Taliban fighters could slip into Pakistan as refugees. The Committee observed that Pakistan’s first priority must be to protect its population from a surge in violent extremism. The committee rightly suggested that Pakistan alone was not capable of dealing with the situation and its burden must be shared by the region and international community in meaningful ways. For this, Pakistan must urgently launch a diplomatic offensive for a big-tent conference that shared the task of negotiating peace, and shoring up a torn country driven by a war economy. How long the government delays this urgent move remains to be seen.
To complicate matters further, the relationship between Pakistan and the USA has become testy after the PM’s strong words describing US policy in the region. This led the Senate Committee chairperson to observe that it was not the best time to be making enemies.
When crucial decisions are not taken on time, unwanted and at times harmful solutions are forced on the policymakers. While there is a broad consensus that Pakistan should not allow Afghan refugees to meld into the population as happened in the 1980s, the policymakers have yet not decided on steps that need to be taken. As a result once the refugees start to converge in tens of thousands, it would be extremely difficult for Pakistan to block them.
Other urgent decisions that continue to be kept on the backburner include whether to recognise the Taliban government when they capture Kabul or follow the international community’s decision and whether to allow the US drones and aircrafts to use our airspace to launch attacks on Afghan territory. Events do not wait for the double-minded or the incompetent. They are already gathering pace and before we know it, the answers to these questions may be forced on Pakistan.
Not clear why Pakistan is so concerned about Taliban takeover when 25 years back Pakistan was training, financing, aiding and abeting Taliban and was the first nation to recognize Taliban Government in Afghanistan? 😆😆😆