THE Afghanistan issue has nearly brought to shreds the decades-old and valued Pakistan-US relationship. I request Islamabad not to just seek, but to actively push and craft out a peace settlement for Afghans by using the Quadrilateral Coordination Group while incorporating both adversaries, the Americans and the Taliban.

Any stability that may come about in Afghanistan due to a peace process may be fragile at best or untenable at worst. Still this is our best option to ensure against cross-border movement so that militants and terrorists are eradicated. Thereafter economic opportunities are bound to spring up for poverty-stricken but mineral-rich Afghanistan, as well as for the region. A case in point is the Central Asia-South Asia Pipeline Project which is a win-win project for both countries.

We cannot afford further inroads into Afghanistan by India, as a Kabul that is politically and economically dependent on India could make our western borders a nightmare. We need to offer incentives and extend an olive branch to the Afghans. We could do this by consulting our Chinese allies and perhaps offer Afghanistan some of the key routes for CPEC that we are going to develop in Pakistan.

The need of the hour is a progressive and liberal Afghanistan that can become a hub connecting Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, the Central Asian States and China. We must persuade the Afghan Taliban to become active participants in a comprehensive Afghan Peace Settlement.

Finally, we need not put all our eggs in one basket by relying solely on Beijing to solve all our economic and security issues. China is undoubtedly a time-tested friend but we mustn’t forget that we can’t afford to have a stalemate in our ties with the sole super-power.

Abbas R. Siddiqi

Lahore

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017