Maqsood Alam
Shared borders have always remained a very fragile issue or reason of contention between the two countries. For example US-Canada,US-Mexico, Iran -Iraq, Pakistan-Afghanistan , Saudi Arabia (KSA) -Yemen and many more .These countries have suffered a lot in terms of losing lives and national treasure, to address or overcome the side effects or related issues like human crossing, trade , smuggling , drug trafficking ,which is considered as common or mutual hazards of the borders, with varying intensity and factors. Experts opine that considering these border related problems, at times the perpetrator of problems for the other country; do not want to address the border issue. Countries having a mutual struggle to address the border management system are much in peace and tranquility than the countries avoiding the addressable issue.
In our region, unfortunately ,when we talk about Pakistan -Afghanistan border, it is acknowledge by the world community that Pakistan wants to control or regulate the Pak-Afghan border, but Afghanistan due to unknown reasons is continuously hurdling and avoiding to cooperate for resolving the issue once for all. Unfortunately, Afghanistan falls into a category of the country, which neither have the capacity nor the willingness to address the border management issues with Pakistan. At number of times, the Afghan security forces have resorted to indiscriminate firing on Pakistani check posts and civilian population, taking away the innocent and precious lives. Afghan government has always blamed border violations on Pakistan, without having any proofs, it even resisted through, firing, the making of structures meant for customs and human checking, very much inside Pakistan’s territory. Every time, Afghanistan has been found guilty and even Afghanistan confessed their own initiated violence against Pakistan and also asked for forgiveness, which came after Pakistan sealed its border with Afghanistan. In such like situation at a border which is otherwise so porous that humanly it is not possible to guard the tough and rugged mountainous area.
There is no doubt that escalation of tension at Pak- Afghan border is deliberately engineered by the elements opposed to the improvement of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Besides, role of Pakistan as a facilitator of the Afghan peace process has also become an apple of discord. Earlier, tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan flared up when Kabul objected to the border fencing within the Pakistan territory citing “Durand Line issue”. Afghan troops have frequently resorted to indiscriminate firing on Pakistani posts. Pakistan and Afghanistan have previously suggested many initiatives to resolve their differences. Those solutions had emerged with utmost vigor but lost their momentum due to lack of proper feedback and follow-up mechanism. Afghanistan and Pakistan have no other option but to cooperate and resolve their differences through political and diplomatic dialogue. Pakistan is very much committed to tackle the problem of terrorism mainly emanating from Afghanistan. Hence, the effective Border management has become a priority and imperative for Pakistan.
Enhancing and chocking the routes through effective border management would also serve as a strict check on both sides to counter the free movement of terrorists and drug mafia , who are the important factors of deteriorating security sit in Afghanistan and its obvious backlash on Pakistan. It is beyond any doubt that the initial momentum towards a positive trajectory of relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan during the early days of Ashraf Ghani’s government had raised the alarm bells amongst our adversaries, since then they are attempting to negatively affect the progressive Pak -Afghan relations through smear and sinister scheming spearheaded by India. Besides, there is a huge lack of trust between both the sides. Therefore, it is imperative for both countries to develop a framework for strategic dialogue, focused on short, medium and long term solutions. As a trust building initiative, an effective border management mechanism should be initiated that would be beneficial for both the countries. Moreover, such establishment would also plug in many loop holes exploited by terrorists to conduct cross border terrorism. Afghanistan unwillingness to cooperate on the issue of maintaining effective Border management at Pakistan- Afghan border is strengthening the doubts and its becoming a common belief among the think tanks that the intentional escalation of tensions at Western border by Afghanistan is intrinsically meant for helping India to augment her sinister activities against Pakistan. All these apprehensions are not theories now; practically India and Afghanistan have displayed their on ground collaboration in the subversive activities against Pakistan. In this context the international community must also exert their influence on Afghanistan to create harmony in the region and shun all such efforts which are deliberately spoiling the peace of the region. As all such efforts would not yield positive vibes and responses, rather it would catalyze the over all deterioration of peace in the region having international impacts. The bottom line for India and all her allies including Afghanistan is the fact that India may take temporary advantage by indulging into creating avoidable scenarios for Pakistan, but India must realize, not to drag Pakistan into a situation, where they would not be able to abstain; from creating unavoidable scenarios for India.
