Contemporary World Politics is not based on Religion Mr. PM of Pakistan: Lalit K Kaul

 

Contemporary World Politics is not based on Religion Mr. PM of Pakistan

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Lalit K Kaul

The honeymoon seems to be over; yes, the rulers of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Taliban are seen distancing themselves from Pakistan more and more by the day. Pakistan rejoiced Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan and nurtured hopes of utilizing the services of their battle hardened cadre at the LOC to revive terrorism in the Kashmir Valley, but got the first indirect snub from the Taliban leadership who publicly stated, many a times, that they will not allow their land to be used for nurturing terror groups. Quite simultaneously the Taliban leadership kept expressing the hope that India will continue with the development related projects started in earlier regimes and in fact kept assuring India of honouring the protocols between the two sovereign Nations.

Pakistan’s failed attempt to win Allies on basis of Religion:    

Pakistan is believed to have supported Taliban in their war against American forces while double crossing the US leadership; right from the inception of American misadventure/“war on terror” in Afghanistan. Pakistan has not denied the allegation much less countered it with facts and figures on the ground. The Prime Minister of Pakistan subtly accepted the allegation by praising Taliban for their act of “breaking chains of slavery”, in Pakistan National Assembly. The then DG ISI of Pakistan visited Afghanistan supposedly to help Taliban leadership with the cabinet formation in a way that its members would be supportive of Pakistan’s geo political aims and initiatives that nurture terror outfits.

Thereafter Pakistan’s leadership very zealously took upon them the task of getting Taliban regime recognized by other sovereign Nations, while they themselves failed to grant recognition to them. The Muslim countries too have not consented to grant recognition to the Taliban government; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), who was the first one to recognize Taliban government in 1996, too has not recognized this time around.

Pakistan leadership convened a meeting of the OIC member countries on the issues related to Afghanistan that included financial assistance and recognition. It turned out to be terribly failed initiative in that no goals were achieved and to add insult to the injury, the Taliban representatives were not included in the photo session as all present objected to their presence in the lens. This was the biggest snub ever that a sovereign Nation’s representatives had received and also their non recognition in a straight hammer way. No promises were made on financial support by the member countries of the OIC and there are no indicators to believe that Pakistan had offered some bulk of financial support to Taliban government in the meeting.

Thus the religion card played by Pakistan turned out to be a damp squib.

Disillusionment with Taliban Government:  

For all the logistic support Pakistan gave to the Taliban in their 20 years war against the US and for facilitating talks between the US and Taliban leadership at Doha which resulted in safe exit of the US forces and consequent Taliban takeover of political power and administration; the Pakistan leadership expected Taliban to bail them out in issues like the Durand Line and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which threaten her integrity. Taliban’s response over the issues has been very disappointing insofar as Pakistan is concerned.

Taliban leadership in keeping with the stand of earlier regimes has refused to accept Durand line as the border between the two countries and on their take on TTP is that they have nothing to do with the organization and that it being internal matter of Pakistan and therefore should be resolved between the two parties. The TTP also does not recognize Durand Line and the paradox is that TTP is Pak’s baby. What the Pashtun race has not forgotten is their massacre by Pak army in coalition with the US forces in their joint war against terror groups and terrorism; Pakistan happily did all that for the sake of dollars that the US was prepared to throw at her face. History is witness to the fact that the Americans always used Pakistan to achieve their geo political goals and in exchange showered dollars on Pakistani establishment. In fact this piece of land mass was separated from Indian Sub Continent not because British sympathized with Muslim political aspirations or were impressed by their so called ideologues, but that it was for serving geo political interests of the US and UK combine and that’s how the US made use of Pakistan; it became possible to do so because Pakistani leadership was always for sale and that’s valid even today. That Pak Establishment always gave a nod to the Americans in consideration of dollars, it is what the Pak political analysts don’t hesitate in mentioning. The “Absolutely Not” statement of their PM is only seen as a bargaining lever to ascertain what Pak would get in return if she was to allow air corridor to the US; that it was never about the land base that the US was asking for, but the air corridor and therefore “Absolutely Not” never made any sense logically.

TTP attacks on Pak Army personnel and Taliban skirmishes on border:

Taliban government has objected to barbed wire fencing done by Pakistan on the Durand Line and at some places they have removed the same; they are insisting that Pak remove entire fencing since they don’t recognize Durand Line as the border between their countries. TTP has adopted the same line and with the rise of Taliban power in Afghanistan, the TTP is immensely emboldened to launch attacks on the Pak army personnel in the KPK region and when they do so the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) also conducts similar attacks on CPEC projects in Gawadar region. There seems to be a nexus between the Afghan Taliban, the TTP and the BLA, because Afghan Taliban cannot afford to outright denounce the TTP as that will activate other groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, Haqqani and others. The Taliban in itself is a heterogeneous group and has substantial cadre sizes that contribute to the ideology of ISIS-K, al-Qaeda etc. Any wrong step by Taliban will initiate exodus of its cadre to other organizations. Therefore the Taliban leadership is not going to do anything that would hurt national sentiment of Afghans (on Durand Line) and/or hurt its own cadre; while it is in the process of getting a good hold over administration of their country. So, the Taliban has taken a sensible route of not accepting Durand Line as the border and not accepting to be a mediator between TTP and Pakistan, much less interfering in the activities of the former.

As if to add insult to the injury, the Taliban government in Afghanistan has asked Pakistan to keep off and not behave like their spokesperson. That Taliban is capable of resolving the issues related to their people and country and don’t need any unsolicited advice/suggestion from Pakistan, is the message that has gone from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

India and Afghan People:     

The political analysts in Pakistan say that Afghans hate Pakistan and they cite many reasons for that and on the other hand it’s an open secret that the Afghans love India and Indians. The reason is pretty simple and it is that since decades India has been carrying out development projects for the benefit of the Afghan people; even after the Taliban regime came in to existence, Indian government has declared to do everything possible to mitigate the sufferings of the Afghan people and for that purpose had dispatched 58,000 tons of food grains to Afghanistan which Pakistan has blocked at her borders and thereby ensuring that relief does not reach its destination. Recently, Indian government has sent some millions of units of Corona Vaccine for Afghan people via Iran that has reached its destination and the Taliban has acknowledged it. The Taliban sure are disappointed at Pak’s act of blocking aid and would to biding their time to teach Pak a lesson or two.

While undeniably the Indian government’s initiative to provide relief to the Afghans is not motivated by unadulterated humanitarian concerns as it also caters to Indian geo political interests yet it is inherent to the politics not based on religion to respond to such situations as secular politics is not fettered by unbreakable iron enclosures and chains. Political systems that transcend barriers of religion and other divisive tendencies in societies are more amenable to respond to an emergency situation than the ones dictated by their religious dictates.

Reason for Pak’s Isolation even in the Muslim World:

The tallest of them all, the KSA, has set itself on the course of reforms so as to enable complete integration with world’s economy and so have the other Arab countries who dominate the OIC and that’s the reason why none of them have recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The other equally important factor dissuading them from recognizing Taliban government is the fear of sanctions that the US may impose on them and which they know will have crippling effect on their economy.

Pakistan is steadily but surely moving towards what has come to be known as “Talibanization of Society” and this belief is further strengthened by the measures taken by the Pak federal government insofar as coeducation in schools and colleges is concerned; the dress restrictions on the womenfolk and more recent advise of the PM of Pak to bank employees that they must attend their office wearing Kurta Shalwar in place of shirt and pant as, according to him, dress like shirt and pant intimidates the villagers and small town dwellers!

The Arab world is moving forward in a direction that’s quite opposite to the one Pakistan is and hence the region of intersection between the two is bound to reduce by the day. The anti India rhetoric of Pakistan is not helping her cause because the Muslim world wants to do business with India and invest in her markets as both India and the Arab world believe that they mutually stand to benefit by such initiatives.   

Therefore, if Pakistan has to come out of the mess it finds itself in, the PM of Pakistan must resolve to free himself and his government from the clutches of what Pak political analyst call “Mullah Mafia” and realize for its own good that the Doctrine of their Qaid-e-Azam has failed to stand the test of the time as any irrational doctrine would. Pakistani leadership need to learn from B’desh experience and ensure integrity of present Pakistan and which cannot be achieved by following “thousand cuts” doctrine.