Pakistan; The main element of Afghan Foreign Policy

From the last three visits of President Ashraf Ghani, it is clear that he values the neighbouring countries and Islamic World in his foreign policy, and he is hopeful to make peace through the mentioned policy. Though it is not clear that to what extent would be his policy successful, but his last steps toward the peace is appreciated.

During his trip to Pakistan, President Ashraf Ghani told media, in the airplane, that he was hopeful that the Kabul-Islamabad bilateral relations will strengthen. He is hopeful for the strength of the relations, because, according to him, earlier Afghan Officials had trips to Pakistan without preparation, but he had prepared for the trip to Islamabad and had designed an influential plan.

 

Afghan-Pak relations toward which direction?

As prior to the trip of Pakistan, President Ghani had two more trips to Saudi Arabia and China, therefore this trip was not only the part of those trips, but also the mirror of the active diplomacy of Kabul toward peace. The mentioned two countries are important because of their close strategic relations with Pakistan, and most of the analysts believe that President Ashraf Ghani want to force Pakistan by those two countries for playing active role in the peace process.

If this is Ashraf Ghani’s hope, so he may be successful in his policy, to some extent. Because the high ranking officials of Pakistan promised him that they will truly do their best to prepare the Taliban for the peace process. But if the aim of the trip was to suppress the Taliban, and operate against them, it would be never fulfilled; because not only Maulana Fazul Rahman’s ideas, but also the lately expressed ideas of Sartaj Aziz also concerned Afghans, and they called it the new way of the two-faced policy of Pakistan.

The officials of both the countries got a chance of rebuilding their relations by the presidency of Dr. Ashraf Ghani. Though the last statements of Sartaj Aziz scratched the relations of both the countries, but still both the countries took their advantages from this chance.

President Ashraf Ghani value good relations and friendship with Pakistan; therefore he invited the Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain to his inauguration ceremony. At the second step, he told the Pakistan National Security and Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz, in Kabul, that they should stop blaming each other, and he also in his trip to Islamabad said that they should forget what happened earlier, because the earlier relations may scratch the upcoming relations.

 

Mutual Opportunities:

Afghanistan and Pakistan have mutual challenges and opportunities in various issues, but according to the new transit agreement, the shared opportunities include “TAPI” and “CASA 1000” projects that will connect Central Asia with Southern Asia, are counted as the shared opportunities of both the countries. These are the projects that will not only have positive impacts on the two countries, but will also spread its advantages in the region.

Accordingly, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of both the countries are hopeful that both the neighbouring countries will tie through economic neighbourhood. On the other hand, President Ashraf Ghani want to rebuild the relationship of both the countries through “The Heart of Asia Conference” process, the new Silk Way, and economic centres.

 

Ashraf Ghani’s Important Decisions Related to Islamabad:

Though the details of President Ashraf Ghani’s decisions in Islamabad are not released in media; but in the “CASA 1000” project, he decreased the fees of electricity that will pass through Afghanistan from 2.5 cents to 1.25 cents, which Pakistan will pay to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, because of the articles of Pakistani diplomats, he cancelled the weapon purchase agreement of Afghanistan with India.

The agreement of Afghanistan with India, according to which Afghanistan would buy weapons from India, extremely concerned Pakistan, and to some extent India also took care of the concern of Pakistan, therefore India did not want to sell its weapons on Afghanistan. But, India was busy with an agreement based on what India will purchase weapons from Russia for Kabul. Ashraf Ghani has done all of that for removal of untruthfulness between Afghanistan and Pakistan and wants both the countries to trust each other.

Some analysts believe that President Ashraf Ghani’s entrance to the Military Game Department of Pakistan was against the protocol; but, if we analyse his decision, so it will be clarified that prior to his entrance, he was thinking and was also aware of that that to what extent the military and intelligence of Pakistan is involved in the case of Afghanistan. Therefore Ashraf Ghani decided to see the Pakistani policy makers face to face regarding Afghanistan.

Accordingly Pakistan firstly sent Sartaj Aziz to Afghanistan and invited Ashraf Ghani to Islamabad. Then sent the General Chief of the Army Raheel Sharif to Kabul, and, according to reliable resources, he ensured Afghan Government that they will do their best for the peace process. After him, the General Chief of ISI General Rizwan Akhtar also reached Kabul on his second day of his official days, though the details of his trip are not yet declared, but it is told that both the parties spoke about security.

 

The attempts of Pakistan for gaining reputation:

Since the independence of Pakistan, it had no good name in Afghanistan; but with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan got the chance to gain the hearts of Afghans. Since that time the General Chief of the Army of Pakistan thought that they have to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan against India.

During the civil war of Afghanistan, for every clash Pakistan was blamed, which with the inauguration of the Taliban regime it reached its peak. Since 2001 to 2008 the soft power of Pakistan in Afghanistan was decreasing compared to the one of India. Therefore, with the appointment of Mohammad Sadeq as the ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul, Pakistan tried to increase its soft power in Afghanistan. Due to the mentioned reason, since 2009 they has been giving scholarships to Afghan students, and up to date approximately 2000 Afghan students are busy with their studies in the universities of Pakistan. They also started the below projects in Afghanistan to regain their lost name in Afghanistan:

• Liaqat Ali Khan Engineering University in Balkh.
• Rahman Baba High School in Kabul.
• The classic literature and language research faculty of Alama Iqbal at Kabul University.
• Sar Saied Science Faculty at the Nangarhar University.
• Nishter Gardey Center in Jalalabad City.
• 400-bed Jenah Hospital in Kabul.
• 200-bed Nayeb Aminullah Khan Hospital in Logar.
• Jalalabad-Torkham Highway[1].

 

Security and Defence Relations with Pakistan:

After 2011 the relations of Kabul-Islamabad became so critical. As in 2011, on one hand, Professor Burhanuddin was assassinated, on the other hand, Afghanistan signed strategic agreement with India, the untruthfulness between both the countries increased. And the untruthfulness was clear in the speeches of the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Ashfaq Kayani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

President Karzai was pointing to Pakistan that it was supporting the Taliban, and Pakistan was not only afraid of the increasing soft power of India, but also afraid of the concerned about the Afghan National Army by India. Pakistan also proposed for the training of the Afghan National Army that time, but because of the cold relations between Kabul and Islamabad, such proposes were not being accepted by the Afghan Government. Such condition was so critical for Pakistan; because, they thought that if Kabul does not have similar deals with Pakistan, so the future power in Afghanistan will be against the foundations of Pakistan, and it will influence most of the Afghan Policy Makers.

For the increase of Pakistan’s concern that only India will not train Afghan National Army, President Ashraf Ghani also proposed Pakistan for training Afghan National Army, though still there are not details of the training declared either it will be short term training of long term training.

On the other hand, President Ashraf Ghani in his meeting with the Chief of Pakistani Army Staff, in the Pakistani Headquarters, said that he want to increase cooperation with Pakistan in the fields of defence and security. Overall, most of Afghan and Pakistani analysts believe that with keeping the sovereignty of the country, the removal of Pakistan’s concern will be the success of President Ashraf Ghani in his foreign policy, about what President Ashraf Ghani has chosen positive policy toward it, up to date.

 

Commercial Relations:

As Afghanistan is not connected to sea, so based on the international law[2], any country that does not have border with sea has the right over other countries, especially on the neighbouring countries, to provide it transitional way to sea. Even prior to the independence of Pakistan, Afghanistan had commercial relations with British India and it was using the border of Karachi for its commerce with other countries.

According to a research, since 1971 to 1990 there were approximately 493 million Pakistani Rupees’ valued goods exchanged between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which makes 1.6% of the overall commerce of Pakistan, and 5% of the overall commerce of Afghanistan[3].

The commerce between both the countries in 2000 was 170 million dollars, in 2010-2011 it was 2.5 billion dollars. In addition, Afghan transit in 2000 was 161 million dollars and in 2009 it reached 1.07 billion dollars[4].

The financial ministers of both the countries agreed that the bilateral commerce will reach to 5 billion dollars up to 2017. They also signed an agreement related to that that the existing obstacles of the bilateral commerce will be removed:

• The customs information between both the countries will be shared.
• Both the sides will build a custom in Torkham.
• They will increase the official days of customs to 7 days per week.
• The Afghan goods from Karachi to Peshawar will be transferred by trains.
• The cargo expenses of Afghan and Pakistani goods will be same.
• If Waziristan become peaceful, Afghan goods will be also transferred through Ghulam Khan Port.
• Both the Afghan and the Pakistani tradespersons will get annual multiple visas.
• The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan and the one of Lahore will get close relationships very soon[5].

The End

[1] Muhammad Asif AhmadZai, Pakistan Promises Scholarships for Afghans, Pajhwok afghan news, see online: <http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2013/11/09/pakistan-promises-scholarships-afghans>

[2] Convention on Transit Trade of Land-Locked States.

[3] Rahim, Tariq (1990). Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade (1971-1990), Area Study Centre (Central Asia), University of Peshawar.

[4] Chaudhry, sajid( July 17, 2010). Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement: Afghanistan says high import duties causing smuggling. Daily Times.

[5] President’s Trip to Pakistan and Significant Outcomes in Improving Trade Transit of Two Countries. See online:<http://www.acci.org.af/component/content/article/38-news/531-presidents-trip-to-pakistan-and-significant-outcomes-in-improving-trade-transit-of-two-countries.html>