KARACHI: Politicians, defence analysts, academics and media persons expressed their views on the topic ‘Afghanistan, Pakistan and Emerging Geopolitical Scenario’ at an online conference on Saturday evening.

Senator Sherry Rehman was the keynote speaker of the inaugural session. She began her talk by raising the point that why everyone is concerned with the situation in Afghanistan. Answering that she said the dramatic fall of Kabul followed on the back of Taliban victory has turned the world’s attention to what’s being called the most existential event of the 21st century.

On the perils to stability in the region, Ms Rehman said it much depends on what goes on in Afghanistan. She argued that peace in Afghanistan is vital and instrumental to Pakistan’s peace and stability. It’s important because, among other things, “what goes on in Afghanistan does not stay in Afghanistan. It flows back into Pakistan.

“If ‘X’ policy has brought us nothing but destruction, then we move away from it, and that’s the decision taken 10 years ago when the last democratic government came in.” Expanding on it, she pointed out the year 2001 brought us many existential challenges. We were vilified as the poster child of a country that exports terrorism. That is when Pakistan decided to do certain things. One was that Pakistan must maintain a policy of political neutrality in Afghanistan.

Mullah Baradar was released on US insistence, federal minister reminds conference

“In this we must not be apologetic about saying that we have a right to stability on our western border and the right to security on our eastern border. Every country has the right to hedge its bets.”

Ms Rehman, speaking on the regional powers involved in the scenario, said that China and Russia will not have a combat role in Afghanistan. Answering a question put to her by the moderator M. Azfar Ahsan after her speech she commented that one of the lessons that should be learned by the world is that Afghanistan is a country that will not accept colonisation; and that power alone is never enough to pacify a society — they will always fight a foreigner.

The scapegoating of Pakistan

Dr Shireen Mazari, Federal Minister for Human Rights, was the second speaker of the opening segment who focused on Pakistan. She said Pakistan should not accept the murmurs of scapegoating coming from the Western media, the US or the UK. “The scapegoating of Pakistan for a failure of those who occupied Afghanistan for 20 years should be something that Pakistan is not going to accept anymore because Pakistan itself has been the victim of these wars. First, when the Soviets came into Afghanistan and Pakistan was brought in.”

She remarked that we were seen as collaborators and suffered most because of it. We had terrorism coming in, polarisation of our society happened, the drugs, Kalashnikov culture etc. “Then we had 9/11 and again we were brought into a war that our prime minister [Imran Khan] has consistently stated for decades that it wasn’t our war, and that there would never be a military solution to peace in Afghanistan. And at the end of the day, the US did have a dialogue with the Taliban. They put pressure on us to release the Taliban leadership. Mullah Baradar was released on US insistence.”

Dr Mazari highlighted, “Pakistan has been a country that has been abandoned periodically by the US. We’ve had enough of blame game and scapegoating. There was no Pakistani involved in 9/11. And yet we suffered. We were looked at as collaborators. Nobody should underestimate the power of Pakhtun nationalism. Once it’s mixed with the jihadi spirit, it becomes indomitable. Unfortunately, for 20 years this was never understood by Nato and the US. Pakistan went into a war which wasn’t its war. It lost 70,000 people, its economy was destroyed, there was more polarisation in society, more refugees came in.”

She was of the view that the Taliban’s statements and actions today are different from those of the earlier Taliban rulers. They have categorically stated that they want an inclusive government. “Will they live up to it? Give them a chance.”

Responding to a question on whether Pakistan will recognise the current government in Afghanistan, she said: “Pakistan will recognise the Taliban with its regional allies. It won’t be a unilateral recognition.”

Pakistan-US relationship

The inauguration was followed by panel discussions moderated by Mosharraf Zaidi. In the second discussion answering a query about the statements given by government functionaries, Prof Adil Najam said there’s no dearth of silly statements, of exaggeration, and no dearth of posturing. “The statements have very little to do with Afghanistan. They are a reflection not of what’s happening in Kabul. They are a reflection of the state of Pakistan-US relationship. They are an honest reflection of the distrust.”

He added that some of the gloating is unbecoming, destructive and erosive. But all of that is expected given that the relationship between Pakistan and the US is in tatters. “It’s a relationship that needs to be rebuilt. Neither did the thing that The Wall Street Journal published help nor do the silly tweets help, nor does the gloating help. But that’s where we are in the relationship.”

The event was organised by Nutshell Group.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2021

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