People were already well aware of what Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was forced to accept on Tuesday – that differences indeed exist with Kabul over the border fence. The government initially kept quiet even as news reports revealed that Taliban soldiers destroyed part of the border fence between the two countries, and also when they threatened Pakistani soldiers putting new barbed wire in place with dire consequences. And it was only when fresh reports emerged about the Taliban destroying more parts of the fence that the foreign minister finally accepted the problem, and even then warned against “playing up” the Taliban’s actions because “that is not in Pakistan’s interest”.
All this makes for a very strange situation. Pakistan’s been the loudest voice lobbying for international recognition of the Taliban regime as well as the resumption of aid to the war-torn country, while all this time Taliban soldiers have been provoking Pakistan at the border. And, if that wasn’t enough, the Pakistani government is warning against making too much of the Taliban’s actions because that, for some reason, would not be in the interest of this country. The fact is that the Taliban are not happy with the fence because they’ve never recognised the Durand Line, which forms the formal international border. They didn’t do it during their last time in power, yet for some reason, Islamabad expected them to this time around. And now that they’ve refused to accept it once again, why is the Pakistani government appearing on the back foot?
Pakistan finally began erecting the fence in 2017, after years of deliberation, to put an end to the cross-border movement of smugglers and terrorists. And since this is a very sensitive national security matter, especially because TTP rebels are looking to bring the fight to Pakistan all over again, Islamabad is expected to take this matter a lot more seriously than seems to be the case so far. Pakistan has been fighting Afghanistan’s case all over the world not just because more trouble there means more terrorism here, but also because without all the help that is possible the people of that country will be all but wiped out. And for the Taliban to repay such gestures with attempts at subversion at the border is in very bad taste. Kabul must be informed very clearly about lines that will never be allowed to be crossed.
