SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN | by Adeel Sheikh- Today, international attention is focused entirely on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, while the painful expulsion of 1.7 million Afghan refugees from Pakistan is left behind.
The present situation does not involve mere repatriation of illegal residents from Pakistan. This decision also shows the anger and frustration expressed by Pakistan’s ruling establishment towards its former allies and friends, the Afghani Taliban. Talk to any expert who does a realistic analysis of strategic issues, and he will claim that the sudden expulsion of Afghani refugees from Pakistan is perfectly justified. After all, which country can tolerate such a large number of refugees in its own country, as Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar says, how can it tolerate especially those who are extremists within Pakistan? are involved in violent acts.
Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar claims that Afghans have been found involved in 15 acts of terrorism in Pakistan in the month of October this year alone. Although this claim does not meet any standards of transparency, even if it is accepted as true, it cannot be questioned whether the watchdog government has allowed the country’s intelligence agencies, which claim to have strong data, to There is, instead of targeting the entire Afghan community, why not just identify the perpetrators? The way the entire Afghan community is being targeted reveals the low quality of the overall leadership of Pakistan which has been ruling Pakistan in a systematic manner especially for the last one year.
The decision to deport Afghan refugees seems to have been taken in the heat of emotions and the said decision does not seem to meet the criteria of human rights and Pakistan’s strategic interests.
First of all, it is a cruel act to evict innocent people from their homes and push them into an uncertain future full of suffering. Winter has already set in and these Afghans face a future of poverty and suffering. The United Nations refugee agency has declared this situation an emergency.
It is unfortunate that the world powers are so engrossed in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the Middle East that they seem to have neither the time nor the resources to address the situation in Afghanistan. The argument is not that Pakistan, like any other state, does not have the right to refuse to house illegal citizens. The real issue is the nature of the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is adding to the complications. The people who are being expelled from Pakistan fled their country and came to Pakistan after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. These people already face serious threats from the Taliban and sending such people to Kabul as punishment may not serve the desired purpose.
Pakistan is also deporting those Afghans who have complete documents. Despite statements by the caretaker foreign minister that only illegals are being deported, the target is much bigger. Innocent children are being oppressed by depriving them of going to school. It has become clear that Afghan refugees are no longer a lucrative venture for Pakistan as they were in the 1980s when Pakistan received millions of dollars.
The security establishment and the ruling elite from different parts of the country have little sympathy for the suffering of the Afghan people. In fact, deep racial bias is visible under the cloak of the national security narrative. Suddenly Afghans, including historical figures who were once proudly presented as representatives of a Muslim Pakistani heritage apart from Indian culture and civilization, are being shown the greatest indifference.
It’s not just a matter of turning the next page as journalist Absar Alam suddenly seems to express his displeasure with all kinds of Afghans. This illustrates another form of erasing history, including the recent past when the Pakistani state named its weapons after conquerors from Central Asia and Afghanistan, including Ahmad Shah Abdali.
Absar Alam’s sympathizers are also present in Sindh, who are promoting the same type of racism by hiding their ethnic bias under the guise of a state-sponsored national security policy.
Asserting the Afghan people to be different could start a new tension in Pakistani society that would lead to further polarization in the future. This trend does not allow even educated people to see beyond the hollowness of their human rights sensitivities and their hearts refuse to feel sorry for the plight of Afghans.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar’s comments show that he does not have much understanding of strategic issues and has an immature ability to deal with a tense political situation. His statement marks a turning point in Pakistan’s Afghan policy, signaling a departure by the security establishment from its long-standing strategy of building and supporting militancy in Afghanistan since the early 1980s. It seems that the policy that started with a little more reliance on the Taliban is now shifting away from Taliban-ruled Kabul.
Despite the fact that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has been involved in several acts of terrorism, a few weeks ago Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, was fighting the case of the same Taliban. Similarly, former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf have also been urging the international community to be lenient with the Taliban government and provide them with financial assistance. Islamabad and Rawalpindi had earlier been urging the world to ignore the brutality of the Taliban and come forward to help the poor, hungry and helpless people of Afghanistan. Ironically, this argument now rings hollow in the very cities of Pakistan.
De-escalation cannot solve the problem of terrorism unless Pakistan acknowledges that many sources of violent extremism thrive within Pakistan. Surprisingly, there is little talk about the systematic nurturing of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) within the country, even though the plan was formulated in 2016 and implemented by the Imran Khan government.
The bigger problem is that this kind of treatment of Afghan refugees cannot force the Taliban to obey. Author Hassan Abbas argues in his latest book that the Taliban are under the control of Pakistan, but the reality is that after the Doha agreement, the Taliban have learned to establish transactional relations with many countries, including China, India, Iran and the United States. After that, their dependence on Pakistan has become very less.
Seeing its frustration getting the better of it, Rawalpindi is trying to convince Kabul that there will be a heavy price to pay for creating unrest in Pakistan. However, undeterred by Pakistan’s decision on transit trade, the Afghan government has started talks with Iran for alternative supply routes.
I am reminded of my 2014 research on Pakistan’s regional trade titled; ‘Tea Leaves for Tanks: Pakistan’s Trade with Iran, India and Afghanistan’, in which many Afghan businessmen stated that they preferred Pakistan over Iran. Afghans residing in Pakistan for many decades have invested significantly in Pakistan’s economy. This investment is now at risk. Regional conditions will change, especially after the treatment of Afghan refugees.
Interestingly, despite being a Shia-majority country, Iran has dealt with the Taliban and the various governments in Kabul more cautiously. Iran is the second country in the region that has hosted millions of refugees, but it has managed the return of these refugees in a very different way than Pakistan.
I remember a civilian contractor doing research for a major security establishment told me that it was believed that historically the real threat to Pakistan had come from the northwest rather than the east. Although there are many problems with this argument, it seems that the state is pushing to turn its concerns into reality. Repatriating these Afghan refugees in such a humiliating manner is unlikely to solve Pakistan’s Afghan problem, but may result in its worsening.
Source: Shafaqna Pakistan
Note: Shafaqna do not endorse the views expressed in the article