ACCORDING to Pakistan’s defence minister, “Peaceful relations with our neighbour are only possible if all support for the TTP is completely ended”. It is difficult, he said, to trust the Afghan side without firm guarantees against cross-border attacks. The truth is, the Afghan Taliban did not give ironclad guarantees to America in the Doha Agreement, and are not likely to give them to Islamabad either. I hold no brief for the Taliban but would still like to understand their policies.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have a shared but contentious history, overlapping identities, a border dispute, and bifurcated tribes. The two have been dependent on external powers, subordinate to their security and strategic interests and victims of their wars. All this provided them with an opportunity to interfere in the other’s affairs.

It all began with Kabul’s open interference in Pakistan with its ‘Pakhtunistan’ claims. Pakistan successfully blunted the Afghan overreach but allowed itself to be drawn into Afghanistan’s political process. First, it attempted to undermine the Saur Revolution of April 1978, with the help of Afghanistan’s Islamist parties. Later, it let the Afghans find shelter in our tribal areas and beyond as refugees,........

© Dawn