Madiha Zain
Ex-Afghan President Asharf Ghani fled to UAE which marked the fall of Afghan government and re-emergence of Taliban at the helm of Afghan government after 20 years. Taliban are holding meetings with prominent Afghan leaders in order to form their government.
This time the political wisdom of the Taliban has been appreciated by many prominent personalities but with some average response from the international community. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s position in this whole scenario is getting important day-by-day but it can also seriously affect Pakistan because another stream of conflicts in the region may also arise due to power struggle within Afghanistan and the world’s compromising support to Taliban.
Pakistan is providing services to international organisations and embassies for smooth evacuation of foreign people but it is done on high risk of its own political survival. Despite countless efforts for peace in Afghanistan and once again emerging as the key player in the region after the US sudden but expected withdrawal from Afghanistan, the international community has almost ignored the valuable efforts of Pakistan by overlooking it at the UN. Pakistan’s permanent representative at the UN Munir Akram was twice stopped from speaking at the UN assembly about the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. International community, especially India, was on high alert to divert the focus of the international community on reality and confront Pakistan at the international forum. Even the foreign media including BBC and CNN were trying their level best to portray Pakistan as a state which has betrayed the United States of America and others for creating ‘safe heavens’ for terrorists on its soil. On the other hand, Pakistan has always advocated that Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism from the Afghanistan side supported by India.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has received multiple calls from international leaders including British PM Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the rise of Taliban and current situation in Afghanistan. However, on the contrary The US President Joe Biden never felt a need to take Pakistan into confidence about its withdrawal and the situation afterwards.
Pakistan has once again emerged as one of the frontline states when it comes to the Afghan situation keeping in mind its geographical and geopolitical importance. Many of the states started blaming Pakistan after the smooth surrender of Kabul but the question arises if Pakistan actually will take advantage of the unstable situation in Afghanistan?
For instance, in a hypothetical manner if we consider that the destabilised Afghanistan is more beneficial for Pakistan even then it is difficult to imagine. Pakistan has the longest border with Afghanistan and destabilising Afghanistan will make the Pakistan borderline more insecure and it has to deploy a large army on that border. In the past terrorists have attacked Pakistan soldiers from the Afghanistan side and it still remains a big question whether Taliban will be able to stop such attacks in the future? Large number of exporters visit Afghanistan from Pakistan every day and a destabilised Afghanistan will create problems for Pakistani traders.
Taliban have been previously using the Northern areas of Pakistan and holding control of the important cities which caused an internal humanitarian crisis and law and order situation in the country which resulted in mass of people internally displaced. After years of internal domestic wars Pakistan was able recapture control of those areas and upholds the government writ. Will it go back to that situation? Certainly not.
As the economy of Pakistan is getting stable will Pakistan welcome afghan refugees again and take burden of them? Pakistan will never opt for it as it took years for Pakistan to improve their national database system and send many Afghans back to their country and promote job and business opportunities for its own nationals. So if all that is not in favour of Pakistan why would it not support the Afghan elected government for its own safety and prosperity? To all the international media propagandists, it’s high time for them to realize the calamity and situation Pakistan has been set in after sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan and help support Pakistan in building a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan because stable and economically independent Afghanistan is all that is beneficial for Pakistan both politically and economically.
Writer is an M.phil scholar.
madeehazain@outlook.com
