How the Taliban is taking the war into Pakistan

[R2D2]

You have not answered my question as to why Hikmatyar was not allowed to rule Afghanistan while being the prime minister and who supported Rabbani?

Let the facts be clear. No Guderian ka baccha from Punjab or Sind came up with the idea that we need a Pakhtun-centric dispensation in Afghanistan.

All of this was pushed by our own well placed Pakhtun hands starting with President Ayub's rule and eventually in the 80s through the workings of the Afghan-desk (in the ISI/Military and Government). GIK, Naseerullah Babar, Hamid Gul, Assad Durrani (I have utmost respect for the latter two - good conscientious officers!) and countless others in the FO and ISI directorates were staffed by cadres hailing from the regions close to Afghanistan. All of these personalities had a significant impact on what Pakistan set out to achieve in Afghanistan and the goal was to ensure Afghanistan had a "Pakhtun-led" dispensation, which was assumed to be more favorable to Pakistan. This is what led to the entire infrastructure being set up in NWFP/FATA to sustain these operations, and the Pakhtun belt providing a constant supply of recruits through indoctrination in hundreds of madrassas across the Pakhtun belt, and the rest is history.

In general, nobody from our down south would have even understood the internal dynamics of Afghanistan better than these hands. Unfortunately, the calls that were made turned Taliban into the Frankenstein of today.

These are the undisputed facts that are seldom discussed. The easy thing to do is to point finger at the Army and fire away, the same way, without any real dissection, blame is only put on the Army for the East Pakistan debacle. There too, the entire West Pakistani elite (civilian politicians including ZAB and countless others from Sind, Punjab and NWFP) in the run-up from the election in 1970 to the actual civil war, pleaded with the military to ensure that the future of Pakistan must not be left in the hands of Mujeeb and those in the East. Honest to God, this was the demand of the West Pakistanis (now they all play the mea culpa card - we are so sorry that our army did this/that to our brethren in the East).

If you want to introspect, do it with honesty and not half-truths that many here spouting their holier than thou attitudes do.

 

[r3alist]

Well we've been trying to figure out the Afghan problem for the past 80 years and failing each time.. What makes you think we'll have it figured out this time around?

Depends on how one looks at it. Figuring out means "managing" it. Being a realist, that is all I expect with Afghanistan.
For as long as the desire to negate Durand Line persists (and by virtue of that, causing destabilization in Pakistan through TTP to that end), all Pakistan can do is manage. There are no serious interlocutors on the other side who can mend fences with Pakistan for good.

Pakistan are at day one of looking at Afghan problem. The soviet war and USa occupation deferred the problems as they dwarfed the lingering dispute


Pakistan is overly critical of itself, they made necessary tactical alliances, but overestimated what any support meant, whilst foreign agencies took the opportunity to seed future discord

The problem is being confronted after internal heart change, it's still early but an effective strategy will evolve over time

 

[Blain2]

You have not answered my question as to why Hikmatyar was not allowed to rule Afghanistan while being the prime minister and who supported Rabbani?

Because we found others more pliable to work with than Hikmatyar. It started with hosting ALL Afghan dissent on our soil including Masood and the Pakhtun leaders. Over time, Masood fell out of favor as this strategy further evolved to use the Pakhtuns exclusively. Then even amongst the Pakhtuns, we had our favorites and Hikmatyar fell out of favor. By the time the Taliban of Mullah Omar and ilk came around, Pakistan's leverage inside Afghanistan was primarily through these elements.

From a written body of work, Taliban and Afghanistan - The Bear Trap cover a lot of these politics during the Afghan jihad. I was an avid newspaper reader in Pakistan in those times. The ups and downs of relations with various leaders were reported but the one constant was always that Pakistan wanted a Pakhtun dominated setup in Afghanistan.

 

[K2RULEZ]

when american or european makes a video on Paksitan suddenly it becomes a gospel truth. 2006 to 2016 it was the worst time for us. Pakistan is not going any where

Remember that the Taliban are today using American and NATO weapons against Pakistan. This is not a coincidence. They left these weapons for the Taliban to be used against Pakistan.