Aims & Objectives - Punjabics.com

Ayaz Amir

Islamabad diary

The truth is that Afghans don’t like Pakistan, considering Pakistan to be a Punjabi state. For reasons
rooted in history they have viewed Punjab through a prism of hostility, not least because a Punjabi
ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, defeated them in battle and took Peshawar from them. If Peshawar
and the surrounding districts are a part of Pakistan it is because of this tangled past.

Small wonder Afghans have never recognised the Durand Line and were the lone country to oppose
Pakistan’s membership of the United Nations.

Yet despite this undercurrent of hostility Afghanistan and Pakistan remained at peace with each
other when King Zahir Shah and after his overthrow his cousin, Sardar Daoud, ruled Afghanistan.
Both our countries played a version of the Great Game, bribing the border tribes and jostling for
influence, but that was it. Despite their differences they never went to war. During the Indo-Pak
war of 1965 Zahir Shah caused no trouble for Pakistan.

It should also be mentioned that Afghanistan was close to India and the Soviet Union and Pakistan
was in the Western camp. Pakistan inherited not only the outward trappings of the Raj. It also
inherited many of Britain’s prejudices and suspicions about Russia. As competing and sometimes
colliding empires Britain and Russia had reasons to be wary of each other. We had no reasons to
fear the Russians. But we looked at Russia through British eyes. Even today our failure to develop
an adequate relationship with Russia is less because of India and more because of memories of
the Great Game acquired at second hand from our former masters.

The so-called Saur Revolution of April 1978 shattered the uneasy but stable equilibrium we shared
with Afghanistan. Pakistan could have reacted calmly. After all a communist takeover in Kabul was
no threat to Pakistan. But General Zia, then uneasy ruler of Pakistan, had his own compulsions. He
lacked political legitimacy. The treasury was empty and Zia had no friends abroad. The communist
takeover came as a godsend. Even though the Americans were not greatly interested Zia started
selling the line that the geopolitical map had shifted and the Soviet Union had its eyes on the
Persian Gulf.

Events played into his hands. The Afghan communists were small men seeing themselves in Lenin’s
image. They rushed through reforms for which Afghan society was unprepared. There was discontent
across the country. Pakistan’s ISI also came into its own, stoking the fires of unrest and backing an
armed insurgency against the communist regime.

There were also internal divisions among the Afghan communists. Afghanistan was thus slipping out
of control and to save the situation and quell the insurgency, the Soviet Politburo, consisting largely
of ageing figures well past their prime, ordered an occupation army into Afghanistan.

Gen Zia was able to say, ‘I told you so’, overnight transformed from a pariah figure into a much
sought after leader courted by the West (the same thing which happened to Gen Musharraf after
9/11).

Afghan refugees started streaming into Pakistan soon after the Saur Revolution. Far from regulating
their entry, the Zia regime actively encouraged more and more of them to come, all in the spirit of
Islamic brotherhood. The legend propagated was that Pakistan, Fortress of Islam and all that, was
the Medina opening its arms to the Afghan people oppressed by godless communism.

Afghan refugees went to Iran as well, about a million of them, but the Iranians, less swept by sentiment
and probably more aware of the dangers, kept them in camps under a strict regime. Pakistan
operating on a higher plane – glory of Islam, etc – gave them the run of the country. They could stay
in camps or they could stay outside. Today Afghans in unregulated numbers are to be found in every
town and village of KP and Punjab, whole areas of Karachi and large stretches of Balochistan. And they
are in no one’s control…a floating mass of people, for all practical purposes outside the state’s jurisdiction.

No one is bothered, certainly not the West which is in a crisis because of its own refugees but can’t
spare a thought for Pakistan, principally because Pakistan, for reasons hard to understand, has never
spoken about this burden the way it should. Westerners come and offer us bland words and Pakistani
officials, military and otherwise, swallow them and this problem is kicked down the road.

The time has come to tell the world, and principally our American friends, that Afghanistan is not our
problem, the Haqqanis or other Taliban are not our problem, and the refugees are not our problem.
The refugees should now go back to their country, all of them. Afghanistan is already suffering a brain
drain, and a manpower drain. It needs help from its own people. The Afghans here should go back to
help in the stability and prosperity of their country.

We needlessly made Afghanistan our problem. We need to get out of this foolishness. A Taliban
Afghanistan or an Abdullah Abdullah Afghanistan is not our headache. Let Afghanistan prosper. Let it
make strides to the moon. We should wish it well and that is about all.

Afghan ministries are packed with graduates from Pakistani universities. Kabul today is a city where
Urdu is widely understood and spoken. Yet the paradox remains that the most hated and reviled
country in Afghanistan is Pakistan. Afghans of all shades of opinion hold Pakistan responsible for
their misfortunes. True, Pakistani generals and the ISI haven’t helped matters by adopting a
patronising tone towards Afghanistan and giving the impression that Pakistan seeks to influence
in that country. But Afghans are not babes in the wood. Their contribution to their own troubles is
not small.

In any event, Pakistan has to look out for itself. Today the situation is that if the Pakistan Army tries
to erect a barrier on this side of the Torkham border the Afghans react violently. The army hands
over the Angoor Adda checkpost to the Afghans and the Afghans, by way of thanks, close the border.

There is no peace in Afghanistan and there will be none for a long time. There is nothing that we can
do to help bring peace there. What should it matter to us who rules Kabul? No Afghan, whether
Taliban or Tajik, is going to recognise the Durand Line. So why are we involved in all these complicated
games? If Tata buses ply the roads of Kabul, if India builds infrastructure projects there, why should
we lose any sleep? We should be worried about the Afghan presence in our midst. Afghanistan should
sort out its own problems.

The CPEC can wait, India can wait. We must keep the Afghan civil war out of Pakistan, and for that it
is absolutely essential that we ask our Afghan guests, whom we’ve long hosted, to leave.

Source: www.thenews.com.pk, May 31, 2016

Pakistan’s unwanted problem: Afghan refugees