During the last week’s media briefing, Pakistan’s Foreign Office [FO] spokesperson stated that “We have been trying to improve relations [with Kabul] but the major roadblock of course, remains the security situation and the sanctuaries enjoyed by terrorists.”
This complaint rekindles a strong sense of déjà vu, albeit of the black humour variety, as does Taliban’s assertion that are no terrorist safe havens on Afghanistan soil, and that instead of blaming others, Islamabad should “focus on its security and resolving internal problems instead of making irresponsible statements.”
And why shouldn’t it? Hasn’t New Delhi been saying exactly what Pakistan’s FO spokesperson has said for the last four-and-a-half decades in context of strained Indo-Pak relations? And isn’t Kabul’s outright dismissal of Islamabad’s allegation almost a verbatim replay of Pakistan’s replies to New Delhi’s protestations?
Ironically, it’s the Pakistan army’s ridiculous quest for ‘strategic depth’ fired by its anti-India obsession that made Rawalpindi believe that being indebted for all the support it had provided, the Afghan Taliban would repay this favour by serving as Pakistan’s minion.
Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to say that the Afghan Taliban’s refusal to subordinate itself to Pakistan was something completely unexpected and out of its character. History bears testimony to the fact that being fiercely independent, subservience is something completely foreign to Afghans and that’s why Afghanistan is referred to as the graveyard of empires.
This reversal in Pakistan’s fortune brought about by the Afghan Taliban’s refusal to serve as Rawalpindi’s minion was expected all along. Didn’t former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warn Islamabad way back in 2011 that “snakes” kept in the backyard to bite neighbours would eventually turn on whoever has them? Furthermore, when the anti-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] terrorist group has fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against the US led coalition forces and the two pursue common fundamentalist ideology, to expect that the former would abandon the latter just to please Islamabad was a tall order.
Pakistan maintains that it’s a victim of terrorism, and this assertion is true. However, it’s perhaps the only country in the world that despite suffering on this account still continues to provide safe sanctuaries to globally designated terrorists. Isn’t Islamabad’s inexplicable silence and failure to rebut the assertion made by India’s permanent representative to the UN in 2020 that “Pakistan is home to [the] largest number of listed terrorists, internationally designated terrorist entities and individuals,” an acceptance of this matter-of-fact revelation?
However, it’s not only others who accuse Pakistan of sponsoring terrorists and even many Pakistanis holding high public offices have accepted the reality that terrorism was promoted as state policy. In 2009, the then Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari admitted that “Militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and nurtured [by Pakistan army] as a policy to achieve short-term tactical objectives.”
A year later, while speaking on US-Pakistan relations at the Atlantic Council, former President and ex-army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf validated Zardari’s observation by admitting that “There was such public sympathy [for terrorist groups created and sponsored by Pakistan army], that no government really did anything about it. And also, may I say, since they were going to Kashmir and fighting the Indian army, it went along with the psyche of the people of Pakistan, with everyone.”
Gen Musharraf also revealed how Rawalpindi’s ‘strategic asset’ policy of creating terrorist groups to wage proxy wars against its neighbours backfired and became a ‘self-inflicted’ injury. He said, “Then comes 9/11, and now we join the coalition, and there is Taliban and Al-Qaida and everything. These very mujahideen groups whose orientation was Kashmir, they turned their guns inwards … developed nexus with Taliban and Al-Qaida. Now, this is the bigger problem area [sic], that they [Pakistan army created terrorist groups] are involved in terrorism in Pakistan.”
While Gen Musharraf accepted the need to "resolve this dilemma [of terrorist groups running riot in Pakistan], he simultaneously cautioned that “While we must target militants, we must not do something which disturbs public opinion massively in Pakistan.” This explains Rawalpindi’s hesitation in acting against certain terrorist group as well as its unsuccessful attempt to broker peace with TTP despite the fact that this terrorist committed the horrendous 2014 Army Public School Peshawar carnage, and has the blood of hundreds of security force personnel, members of law enforcement agencies and civilians on its hands.
From what’s happening in Pakistan, it’s clear that karma has finally been served for Islamabad. The unfortunate part is that while ordinary Pakistanis are paying dearly for the follies of the military, Rawalpindi neither has any regrets for breeding terrorism nor the inclination to get rid of the “snakes” that it still continues to keep in its backyard. Au contraire, it keeps blaming all and sundry for the sorry state of affairs prevailing in Pakistan in an attempt to mask its own unpardonable role in creating the Frankenstein of terrorism. Can Rawalpindi deny Gen Musharraf’s frank admission that “We [the Pakistan army] poisoned Pakistani society for 10 years when we fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s”?
Postscript: In an undated interview video, Gen Musharraf Pakistan proudly said that "...In 1979, we [The Pakistan army] had introduced religious militancy in Afghanistan to benefit Pakistan and to push [the] Soviet out of the country.” While this malevolent endeavour did help drive out the Soviets from Afghanistan, Rawalpindi hasn’t till date clarified as to how “religious militancy” has benefited Pakistan.
With his profound knowledge of Islam and an extraordinary flair for quoting its verses, Pakistan army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir may perhaps like to answer this question!