Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister, has said that his country is in the midst of an “open war” with Afghanistan because its patience has run out due to terror attacks from Afghan soil. Is war a solution to Pakistan’s problems with Afghanistan? Has the Pakistani establishment forgotten that Afghanistan has been the graveyard of empires? Irony also died a thousand deaths when Pakistan expressed impatience with terror attacks against it.

At the core of the crisis is Pakistan’s perennial desire to turn Afghanistan into a vassal state. The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, hailed in Pakistan as a vindication of its policy, has turned into a nightmare. No longer dependent on Pakistan, the Taliban has charted an independent path. It does not recognise the Durand Line. Pakistan accuses it of providing sanctuary and support to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The Taliban denies the charge — it describes the TTP as Pakistan’s internal problem, and accuses Islamabad of harbouring terrorists of its nemesis, the Islamic State-Khorasan........

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