IT is true that a man thinks and plans one thing, and something else happens. Pakistan’s Afghan policymakers had to face the same fate during the 45-year war in Afghanistan.

When a bloody coup d’état was staged in April 1978 and the former Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in December 1979, it was only the beginning, but no one predicted that the assembling of jihadist forces from across the world would shake global security to its core, changing the security paradigm, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Various Pakistani analysts predicted that after the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Afghan Mujahideen would emerge victorious, marking the end of anti-Pakistan forces and the beginning of a new era of cordial relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was hoped that Peshawar would become a hub of trade for the landlocked Central Asian Republics, culminating in Pakistan’s economic prosperity.

After the........

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