Relations between Islamabad and Kabul had a controversial history over times on foreign, military and economic fronts. The history of good times between the two countries remained sordid and often seen as a poor management of political and military affairs. Currently, the relations have worsened to the same extent and plummeted to new lows like in the past about the growing militant attacks on both sides which were blamed as planned and prepared from each others soil.
Islamabad has rejected the recent allegations from Kabul that its intelligence agency is involved in the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan and that Islamabad is not keen in efforts to end the war in Afghanistan.
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani attacked Pakistan in a speech last month for providing safe heavens to terrorist groups. It is a threat to restart the peace process and improvement of ties between both countries. Ghani’s reaction came a week after a deadly attack in Kabul by the Taliban that had killed 64 and injured hundreds, the most brazen attack in the city in years. The Taliban earlier this month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, vowing “large-scale attacks” across Afghanistan.
“Pakistan should no longer continue the good and bad terrorist policy. There is no difference between good and bad terrorists, all terrorists are terrorists. We expect Pakistan to act as a responsible state,” Ghani said.
Earlier, the allegations against Pakistan’s spy agency had been made by acting Afghan spy chief, Massoud Andarabi, while addressing to the Parliament in Kabul last month.
Zalmay Khalilzad described the Pak-Afghan tension as “the mother of all problems” in the Pak-Afghan region. Khalilzad, who is the former US ambassador to Kabul, is of the view that “The biggest failure of the United States in Afghanistan is its inability to persuade Afghanistan and Pakistan to cooperate”.
“It is unfortunate indeed. Such allegations from Kabul are baseless and counterfactual. Pakistan is fighting militancy with full determination, said Nafees Zakaria, a foreign ministry spokesperson in Islamabad.
“There is apparently no more sign of President Ghani’s overture for friendly relations with Pakistan, as has been the case at the beginning of his presidency in September of 2014. In fact, Ghani several times mentioned that ‘Afghanistan is in a state of an undeclared war with Pakistan’, which has also been picked up by other high-ranking Afghan officials. There seems to be no improvement of relations between the two war-torn countries, at least not in the short term,” said Borhan Osman, an expert in Kabul.
“In view of such frosty relations, one cannot see how the Pakistani government or military is supposed to play a vital role in a possible revival of any peace negotiations.” Omar added.
In November last year, Pakistan’s powerful military chief General Raheel Sharif, during his important visit to the US held talks about the key issues, primarily the escalating Islamabad-Kabul scenario and facilitation on the major issue of peace parleys with the Afghan Taliban. Amid several indications, the most central issue was the revival of peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, viewed closer to Pakistani spy agency ISI.
Various Pakistan government officials believed that Pakistan was ready to play its role in the revival of peace talks but Afghan government response on the recent series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan had spoiled the atmosphere.
On the other hand, the growing tensions between the civil-military ties between Rawalpindi and Islamabad had put the democratic government aside on the key matters of defense and foreign policy by grabbing a great deal of space for itself. Surely the Sharif government is to be blamed for such unpleasant democratic state of affairs.
The Heart of Asia conference (HOA) nations agreed in Islamabad in December 2015 over regional issues, primarily tackling the growing insurgency in Afghanistan. There was mounting domestic pressure on president Ghani for not even attending the conference in Islamabad under the theme ‘enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the HOA region.’ The head of Afghanistan’s premier intelligence agency, NDS Rahmatullah Nabil, resigned hours after he criticized the remarks of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the opening session of the conference in Islamabad. Despite the various commitments made in the HOA meeting, the turmoil in Kabul continues even with more intensity of violence and loss.
Peace Parleys
An initial meeting between the Taliban negotiators and Afghan government was anticipated to take place in Pakistan in the first week of March but the insurgent group refused to initiate peace parleys by putting preconditions. They vowed to intensify hostilities in lieu of peace talks.
Pakistan had hosted a meeting between the Afghan Government and Afghan Taliban representatives in Murree on 7 July 2015 along with the representatives from China and USA.
“After a tense period of unfriendly relations and allegations by the Afghan government, both sides are trying to improve their ties. Last year, General Raheel Sharif’s visit to Kabul determined that the two sides would finalize the road map for resuming the peace talks between the Afghan government and Afghan Talibans, with Pakistan acting as the facilitator and China and the US serving as observers/guarantors”, said a veteran Pak-Afghan expert, Rahim ullah Yousafzai.
“However, overcoming the distrust between Islamabad and Kabul won’t be easy. The chances of improvement in their relations would decrease if Pakistan is unable to bring Afghan Taliban to the negotiations table and make the talks a success”, Yousafzai said.
Once again, the war of words between the two countries’ experts believe, can probably strain the bilateral relations, which are already impaired by years of mistrust and hunch.e talks with the Afghan Talibans should not be seen as dubious by the Afghan government. Diplomats from four nation panel are making “serious efforts to make something out of peace talks”, he added.