Forget about the Taliban. They neither deserve legitimacy nor is there any point in looking for a waiver to unfreezing their assets to start running the affairs of the government. They are the same dicey, audacious and dangerous Taliban of the 1990s and as such do not deserve any ‘mercy’. Their coming to power and that too so swiftly and completely was beyond our calculation or at least that’s what we want the world to believe. Ashraf Ghani and company ditched us as well as the people of Afghanistan or at least that is what we want the world to believe. What we could or could not achieve in our two-decade long stay is already forgotten and taken by the world as an event of the past. Yes, there are strong indications of fresh waves of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan but our focus now is somewhere else. The IS-K, TTP and others along with narcotics business, IDPs and refugees are your concerns now.
We are ready to address the humanitarian crisis and help them on the frozen banking channels, but first Kabul must have an inclusive government and provide certain assurances on account of human rights and the spread of extremism and terrorism. To demonstrate our sincerity towards the cause of humanity, the UN Security Council has unanimously adopted our resolution to allow the payment of funds and the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance to meet the basic needs in Afghanistan. However, it must be noted that the sanctions remain in place along with the stigma of the T-word attached to the Taliban. The regional countries must realise how difficult and painful it was to ‘control’ things in Afghanistan. In any case, we have done our part and now someone else should look after the ensuing chaos in and around Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, we are pleased to note the outcome of the recently concluded OIC’s extraordinary session on Afghanistan and see it as a collective action to help the needy. By all means it was a successful event and deserves the world’s appreciation for its organisation. We have also noted with pleasure the aid pledged by Riyadh, Tokyo and others to address the needs of forty million hard pressed Afghanis. The presence of a Taliban delegation in the Conference without recognising their government in Kabul is, however, not understood. None of the participating delegations either from the OIC or non-OIC entities boycotted the moot, objecting on the presence of Muttaqi and company. Does it mean the Conference wanted to find a way to help the distraught populace of Afghanistan without recognising the Taliban Government yet confirming support for them? Talk about being duplicitous.
Also not understood is how the pledged and would-be pledged funds would reach the people of Afghanistan without involving the Taliban and in the absence of any official banking channel. The most important question is: why any of the Muslim countries including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have neither rebuffed nor officially recognised the Taliban government? What happened to the idea of arriving at a regional consensus on this issue? We feel the whole world including China and Russia are waiting for a nod from us. Well, keep guessing.
Pakistan must have done the SWAT analyses and risk assessments in persistently being the focal point of the Afghan conflict. It must have also calculated the repercussions of the ‘defiance mode’ being shown to the West. If so, then its insistence on improving relations with us particularly in the trade and economic domain does not make any sense. We have made it very clear to all that our remaining interest in Islamabad begins and ends at counterterrorism. In international relations, there is a price to pay for any act or omission.
