Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Is President’s Visit of Pakistan Different?

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Is President’s Visit  of Pakistan Different?

President Ashraf Ghani is on his first important visit of Pakistan. He reached there on Friday where he was received by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz. Before leaving Kabul, the President announced that his visit would be different than his predecessor Mr. Karzai as he was leaving the country with a definite agenda and it is not like many visits of Mr. Karzai in which majority were instantaneous and without any planned objective. According to the President, he met with different people before deciding upon the visit of Pakistan and gathered a good set of agendas to be discussed with Pakistani officials. On Friday, President Ghani had an important visit of the GHQ (General Headquarters) of Pakistani military where he was given a guard of honor. In this important visit, he met with the head of Pakistani military, General Raheel Sharif. Mr. Ghani praised the contribution and sacrifices of Pakistani security forces in combating terrorism. Except for the formal details of this meeting, rest of the details has not been made known to media and public.

President Ghani on Saturday met with Pakistani Premiere Nawaz Sharif and they also watched a cricket match between the A-teams of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the 145 member delegation, there are also present a number of traders which shows that this visit is intended for discovering more opportunities of trade expansion between the two countries. Members of High Peace Council are also part of the team of President who would talk with Pakistani officials about different efforts to bring Taliban and other anti-Afghan elements on table of negotiations. As Mr. Ghani had expressed his desire to see peace talks started immediately with Taliban and all those who look to destabilize Afghanistan, it seems to be an occasion when this desire is going to be discussed with those who are considered the important stakeholders in this problem.

The visit of Mr. Ghani to Pakistan carries much importance than his visit to any other country of the world. Though there is a general air of opposition and non-acceptance against Pakistan in Afghan public and media, ignoring the importance of Pakistan would be really unwise to any Afghan leader or government. Although Afghanistan’s history is full of confrontation between the two countries, different factors like similarities between the people of two countries and their inter-dependence on each other highlights the importance of good relations between the two countries. In last twelve years of democracy, government officials and media have not missed any chance to criticize Pakistan but such a strategy has not done any good to any sides. It is thus necessary that both the sides should try to improve their relations in order to bring natural and feasible resolution to all the conflicting issues between the two countries.

Former President Hamid Karzai paid 20 visits to Pakistan and many Pakistani leaders also came to Kabul but these visits never brought about any concrete result except for some formal and often-repeated press releases that never showed the true picture. Near the end of his second term, Mr. Karzai seemed to be disappointed from Pakistan and he criticized the neighboring country for failing in controlling militants entering Afghanistan from Pakistan and the relations between the two countries badly deteriorated. Similar kinds of statements were issued by the Pakistani government. But it remains a fact that these two-sided remarks did no good to both the countries and it just opened a door of complaints and criticism from both the sides.

In all the visits of Afghan and Pakistani officials, a strange paradox can be noticed in words and action. At the end of all these visits, leaders from both the sides thanked each other for cooperation in combating terrorism and reiterated their pledge to combat it with combined efforts and extend all the cooperation in this regard. But as they returned to their own soil, they criticized the other for not doing enough efforts and relations got strained. The role of media on both the sides was also, more or less, the same. Afghan media showed our leaders criticizing Pakistan while Pakistani media showed their leaders expressing their disappointment for the criticism of Afghan leaders. In this way, people on both the sides were not able to see the actual picture.

In last couple of years, the relations between the two countries were much disturbed by cross-border shelling of Pakistan into Afghan soil. According to media reports, thousands of rockets have been fired from Pakistani side, resulting in the deaths and injuries of dozens of Afghans. The rocket shelling has been condemned on all levels and has resulted in the increase in public anger against Pakistan. However, Pakistani media shows absolutely a different picture. They deny the intense shelling of rockets. According to Pakistani officials, they fire a couple of rockets when terrorists from Afghan soil try to enter Pakistan and criticize the baseless criticism of Afghan officials and media. While international media shows a blurred picture taking the views from both the sides. Unfortunately, no serious efforts have been made to bring a durable and feasible solution to this problem.

Same is the problem with terrorists. If Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of sending terrorists to destabilize Afghanistan, Pakistani officials also complain of the infiltration of terrorists from Afghanistan into Pakistan. The issue has been made controversial as the Americans and close allies of Afghanistan could not blame Pakistan directly and the problem persists in the same critical situation as it was a decade ago.

More or less is the case with the presence of Taliban’s Shura (or Grand Assembly) in Quetta city of Pakistan from where all the activities of Taliban are planned. Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of supporting Taliban in Quetta and providing them with all the support but these accusations have strongly been rejected by Pakistani officials, terming them to be baseless. Till today, no concrete efforts have been made by either side to come up with evidence and solve the problem once forever.

Having a look at all the above mentioned facts, the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan seems to be a game of blaming and rejecting in which none of the sides has got any benefit. It would be really unfortunate for the people of the region if this visit also ended like the past visits and no visible outcome was achieved from it.

While talking of the importance of relations between the two countries, it is necessary that both the sides should come directly on the conflicting issues instead of discussing and issuing statements in formal and repeated manner. At the same time, it remains a fact that both Afghanistan and Pakistan’s hands are tied by all those international players who are playing their game on the soil of two countries and making them blame each other. Sooner or later, the two countries will have to take a unified stance against these foreign elements and make it clear to them that they would no more be their puppets and they would make concrete efforts for bringing actual peace and prosperity in the region. Such a mindset would be the beginning of actual and constructive talks and visits.

(Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com)

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