I think there can be negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the Afghan side is not sincere. They are after worldly matters, and their main concern is where they can get money from. India is ready to give them money for activities against Pakistan. They are being used, and they are allowing themselves to be used.
If Afghanistan stays with Pakistan, it can survive. Pakistan cannot provide a lot of money, but Afghanistan can survive because all its trade is with and through Pakistan. Its trade routes with Pakistan are natural. If it wants to explore other routes, those routes will be unnatural. They have experienced this recently and they know that they cannot survive without Pakistan.
Despite this, the attraction of the money offered by India and some European countries remains.
The BLA is also being sponsored from abroad. Its sponsors are sitting in Britain and Europe, and its terrorists also visit India. Despite being Muslims, they stand in front of Gandhi’s statue. These people are fond of money, and they are betraying their own country.
If Afghanistan talks directly with Pakistan and understands what Pakistan is asking from it, the problem can be solved. Pakistan has asked that the people involved in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan should be punished and put in jail. If Afghanistan cannot do that, or if it is afraid of them, then it should hand them over to Pakistan. This is a fair demand.
But they are dishonest because of their desire for money. They know that the current government of India is against Muslims. Muslims have been harassed inside India and are living there with great difficulty. Despite this, Afghanistan continues to look towards India for money and support.
Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda and the Old Cycle
People from Middle Eastern countries, including Osama bin Laden and Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, were rejected in their own countries and were not allowed to live there. They came to Afghanistan because of the loose government there, Russian involvement in Afghanistan and the concept of jihad against Russia.
When they came to Afghanistan, they lived within Afghan society. Afghanistan already had its own terrorism, and these people added to it. They forced the former Soviet Union to withdraw, and later the United States also withdrew.
Afghans believe that they defeated these superpowers. But a defeat is such that whenever the defeated party wants, it can come back and occupy Afghanistan again. It is very easy to take over Afghanistan because they have no proper army, they have no proper training, and the people there are also not serious about putting their country on the path of progress and prosperity.
This is how people come to Afghanistan and leave Afghanistan. When they do not get anything, they start harassing Pakistan through infiltration and by supporting terrorists who operate against Pakistan.
People often ask why they do not harass the Central Asian republics in the same way. The people from the Pashtun areas who move towards Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are easily recognized by their appearance. But when they come towards Pakistan or Iran, their appearance is similar to the people living on this side of the border. That is why they can carry out more terrorism here.
A country has to consider itself responsible for its border. Pakistan is a regular state. Whatever enmity we have with India, we never say that we will carry out terrorism there. We control our people. We have posts on the border and we have controlled the border properly because it is our responsibility.
In Afghanistan, they do not consider it their responsibility, or they do it deliberately.
There is also talk about trade whenever the Pak-Afghan border is closed. But where does trade actually happen? A lot of it is smuggling. This smuggling is harmful to Pakistan but suitable for Afghanistan.
Flour, cement and other small things are smuggled into Afghanistan. Afghanistan produces fruits and Pakistan is a market for those fruits. Pakistan already has a lot of fruits of its own, and if Afghan fruits are not imported, it does not matter much. But Afghanistan is poor and its people want to sell their fruits. They should come and sell them because Pakistan is a market.
There Is No Proper State System in Afghanistan
There is no proper system in Afghanistan like the one that exists in Pakistan. The British made this system in our country and we strengthened it further.
We have commissioners, deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, revenue staff and a police system. There is an IG police, DIGs, DPOs and other administrative structures.
There is nothing like that in many parts of Afghanistan. They have an official called an Ulaswal, who is the counterpart of our deputy commissioner, but in many places there is no such official. Even where they exist, nobody listens to them.
There is no proper system there. There are mosques everywhere. There are mosques in the villages, and when there is a problem, people ask the cleric to solve it. The religious teachers have greater influence, and that is why society moves in that direction.
People from here have been fleeing to different places in Afghanistan for ages. They plan attacks there, attack Pakistan and then run away again. The Afghan government does not stop them, and it does not have the system to stop them.
Now India is paying for it. Some Western countries are also giving money, and terrorist attacks are being carried out using that money.
The countries of the world, including America and the United Nations, understand this. Afghanistan has become a terrorist country, and this problem is a headache for Pakistan.
It is not that Pakistan does not have enough forces. We have enough forces. We can deter them and we do deter them. If we strengthen the border over time, it will become very difficult to come here from Afghanistan, and terrorism will also decrease.
TTP and BLA Have One Common Goal
The common factor between the TTP and BLA is hostility towards Pakistan.
The BLA is not totally religious. In fact, there is no religion there. The Taliban consider themselves religious. What kind of friendship between them is possible?
Their common goal is hostility towards Pakistan. That is what unites them.
The Taliban claim to be religious, but in the conditions in which they live, many of them do not even pray. Their clerics tell them that they are free from the obligation to pray. In Islam, prayer is compulsory no matter what the circumstances are. A Muslim has to offer prayers five times a day.
They are not propagating religion. They are not fair people. They are not pious people. They are goons, goons with beards.
PTI, JUI-F and the Political Battle
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI government has been formed after the last three or four elections. Some people even say that it is foreign-sponsored. They refer particularly to Jewish interests and certain European countries that want to denuclearize Pakistan.
The policies PTI has been pursuing also strengthen this opinion because they support the Taliban.
PTI is currently in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but whatever measures are taken by the provincial government are taken half-heartedly, not wholeheartedly. When people become very sick and irritated and start looking towards the government, only then statements are issued to cater to public sentiment.
Their original stance is to allow the TTP and other terrorists to come here. No doubt, PTI wants to use the Taliban, meaning the TTP, as its military wing against the people of Pakistan. Therefore, its position on terrorism is basically in favour of the Taliban.
Its founder has been speaking in their favor. When PTI was in power, a certain number of terrorists were brought back and settled here. Some of these people operate as cells among Afghan refugees. They come from there, stay here for some time, carry out terrorist attacks and then go back to their country.
This is the situation.
Pakistan’s forces are making sacrifices every day. The Frontier Corps, including FC Balochistan, is making sacrifices. The police are also making sacrifices. Soldiers and ordinary people are being martyred every day, and the same is the case with the police.
At the same time, some political forces are misleading our people. That misguidance is still going on.
Our religious political parties are also involved in this misguidance. Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam, especially, is in contact with the Taliban. Their conversations have been intercepted, and I believe the army has this evidence.
They talk to them here. They have made madrasas and occupied mosques.
I think ordinary people should understand this. Wherever there is a mosque in a locality, if its cleric takes part in politics, the people should remove him. They should tell him that if he wants to do politics, then he should leave the mosque.
A mosque is a place of worship. A mosque is not a place of politics.
People should be educated about this, and slowly they have started to understand it.
This is our system, and different forces want to break it.
If we look at Pakistan, there are two major political families. One is in Karachi, the Zardari family, and the other is in Lahore, the Sharif family. The common people should tell them that they are sorry their wishes have not been fulfilled, because their wishes are too great.
In a way, the system is being changed and people are being brought forward because they are not getting any benefit.
Poverty is widespread in Pakistan, but there is a provincial government that is buying an airplane. Why is it buying an airplane? Because it has money, while people are struggling.
This system should change.
Those who speak against this change also need to be questioned. We do not have such a big family, but the smaller family in this political system is Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam. Look at how much money they have collected and how much they continue to collect every day.
Pakistan’s problem is therefore not only terrorism coming from Afghanistan. It is also the political, religious and financial system inside the country that allows different forces to exploit ordinary people.
We need to understand all these links together. We need to strengthen our border, protect our people, prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base against Pakistan, and also prevent political and religious forces inside Pakistan from misleading the people.
Only then can Pakistan deal with the challenges coming from Afghanistan and the terrorist networks operating against it.
