Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has been telling the media lately that in case Afghanistan didn’t mend its ways and hand over those terrorists to us who have been instrumental in carrying out suicide bombings in Pakistan, we will be forced to take steps like denying the passage to Afghan and Indian traders to use our soil for carrying out their bilateral trade activities.
The nation looks askance at him and eagerly await translation into reality of his above mentioned threat as Afghanistan has not shown any seriousness to Pakistan’s repeated requests to come down with a heavy hand on the lunatic fringe among its rank and file which is a stumbling block in the way of saner element in Afghanistan who don’t want to tread the path of violence against Pakistan.
The recent decision of the Taliban government in Kabul , allowing Alquaida to work under its wings will further exacerbate the already fragile law and order situation in this region and provide the Americans with a new opportunity to use its military option in Afghanistan thus plunging this area into turbulence once again.
Afghanistan has never been our friend right from the day Pakistan came into being It was the only country in the world which had opposed grant of UN’s membership to us. Kabul has always been dancing to the tune of New Delhi. But for loyalty of a preponderant majority of our tribesmen to Pakistan, India in cahoots with Afghanistan would have created unrest in the former FATA where it had succeeded in creating a lobby for it by bankrolling a number of leading tribal chieftains who, however, could not succeed in their machination against Pakistan because of mammoth opposition faced by them at the hands of commoners in the FATA.
After the overthrow of monarchy no visible improvement occurred in Kabul during the reign of leaders like Noor Mohammad Tarakai, Babrak Karmal , Hafeezullah Amin and Dr Najibullah and things went from bad to worse till the Taliban came to power when a new era of linguistic jingoism and religious fanaticism became the order of the day which still continues unabated in one form or the other
and only Goodness knows when will it end.
