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MANSOOR HAMZA. Geographer – Poet – Teacher
18 September 2021
The Government considers pardoning the banned Tahreek-i-Taliban, Pakistan. Such news has sparked threats to the world from a possibility that the decision would haunt back. There is certainly a bad time that looms around Islamabad, subject to the situation in Afghanistan. The time will decide and how the government deals with it. The current scenario portrays a negative and discouraging picture of the geopolitical landscape. Afghanistan’s advocacy that is already taken over by the Taliban, poses a security threat to the world that might bring denouncement and strategic and geo-economic disadvantages to Pakistan. The recent developments indicate that it has already begun. It now testing time for Pakistan’s policymakers and decision-makers that how they react and the message will be watched globally. It is again a decisive time for Pakistan post 9/11.
The most concerned player in this situation, the US, will need some strong reason to stay back in Afghanistan; the presence of Islamic State –Khurasan (IS-K); The Taliban government has left the banned outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban, Pakistan; alleged involvement of Pakistan in the toppling of Afghan government; Pakistan government’s decision to release TTP prisoner through general amnesty; on a broad-spectrum engagement of China and Russia – the staunch opposition to the United States. Meanwhile, Imran Khan is busy promoting the role of Islamabad in Afghanistan and advocating the Taliban take over, the world has already started to react to the current stance of the Pakistan government.
Dr. Moeed Yousuf, the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his recent statement, reiterated the need to support Afghanistan. He is wary of financially frustrated Afghanistan because he thinks; terrorism might hit the world again if the country remains helpless. During the war with the Taliban, the foreign funding helped Afghan Government, mainly by NATO allies, to run the country. Now, as the NATO troops have left the station, the new occupants would need a huge amount of money to run the affairs of the state. In such a state of chaos and crisis if not supported it is extremely possible that religious extremism will rise. The reflection of which is the recent attack by the Taliban in Balochistan that killed FC personnel.
The response from the United States must have rattled Islamabad. They have denounced Pakistan for presenting herself as a major contributor and facilitator of the Afghan Peace Deal. The former representative of the Trump administration has claimed that it was the United States that forced Pakistan to release Abdul Ghani Baradar from jail that lead to the deal afterward. The statement clearly vindicated Pakistan and softly admired some role that Pakistan played.
It is in public knowledge that the banned outfit was involved in tragic incidents of APS Peshawar, and hundreds of uneventful incidents that took the lives of thousands of army personnel, policemen, and common people. The people of this country would never forget dreadful nights and days of suicide attacks that wrecked this country apart in burnt pieces. Now that, the government thinks of pardoning the terrorists, it would certainly create a sense of mistrust and hatred for the government in the country and as well as among the international community.
The support for the United States, in the retrospect, has been damaging Pakistan for a long time. It is an unending trail of historic decisions. There is no doubt that the country often needed economic support. But for that purpose opting a way that brings humiliation all the time and damages society, in a longer course, is totally an act of betrayal with the nation. The current situation is a key to that chain. However, years’ long efforts seem to have been wasted with the latest development. The backlash has been detrimental to such growth.
The United States has signaled a lack of displeasure and revision of their policy towards Islamabad on Afghanistan’s issue. Simultaneously, the New Zealand Government made their Cricket Team back out from a scheduled tour at the last minute before the first One-Day International match due to some hidden security threat. Both the incidents mark the day disadvantageous for Pakistan while the premier is on a two-day visit to Tajikistan to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) reported that the Prime Minister approached the Kiwi counterpart, Jacinda Arden, to convince the New Zealand Government to continue the tour. Despite such state-level engagement, the tour was canceled. Additionally, The England Cricket Board has also signaled at backing out from the tour that is scheduled in October. The implications of this withdrawal would haunt Pakistan in the longer run. It is a big blow to the efforts that Pakistan made to bring international cricket back after the Lahore incident back in 2009.
The sudden exit from the New Zealand Cricket Team and the response from the United States clearly indicate that cold winds from the west have started to blow strongly. The afghan stalemate has proved to be a hinge in the diplomatic history of Pakistan. There is no doubt that Khan’s government advocated peace and stability in Afghanistan with intentions of common well-being but while the government forgot the vulnerability and limitation of its diplomatic capacity. There’s a long way ahead to further judging the end result of this endgame. But the signs are very much clear that Pakistan has stuck into another bottleneck framed by the United States.