Pakistan's interest in Afghanistan

The Foreign Office has strongly denied interference in Afghanistan's affairs while contradicting a report in the Sunday Telegraph, and reiterated Pakistan's policy of neutrality in the country's bloody civil war.

This reiteration, though, is finding few takers in the region or further abroad. The general perception in countries such as Iran, the Central Asian Republics and Russia is that Pakistan supports the Taleban and may enjoy influence with the movement. This impression gained strength after Pakistan became the first country to recognize the Taleban government soon after its forces took Mazar-e-Sharif.

Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan are undeniable. It requires, and desires, a friendly government on its western border. But Pakistan cannot conceivably harbor illusions about the possibility of a one-party, wholly Pashtun solution to the complexities of the civil war. Having invested many years and sacrificed a great deal in denying Afghanistan to the Soviet Union and the Afghan communists, Pakistan cannot afford the luxury of disengaging from Afghanistan now.

But that engagement should be predicated on Pakistan's own interests. These interests may be better served by using whatever influence Pakistan commands with the Taleban to persuade them that a purely military solution to the civil war is a near impossibility, given the fact that the other side too has regional backers apprehensive of the further intrusion of the Taleban across Afghanistan's northern and western borders.

Pakistan's interest clearly lies in helping to bring about a friendly, broad based, moderate government in the long suffering country. That seems the only viable route to peace and stability on our western border. Any other construct would be fanciful and liable to being contradicted again and again by the abiding ground realities in Afghanistan.

-- The Nation, Lahore, Pakistan