Terrorism has long been a painful reality for Pakistan, with its roots deeply intertwined with the situation across the north-western border. From the very beginning, every regime in Afghanistan has adopted a policy of opposition toward Pakistan.
This stance led to significant repercussions, including resistance to Pakistan’s efforts to join the United Nations and attempts to stir controversy over the Pak-Afghan border. Leaders like Zahir Shah and Sardar Daud pushed the idea of Pashtunistan, which only fueled chaos within Pakistan. The situation escalated so severely that during Ayub Khan’s time in office, Pakistan felt compelled to conduct air strikes in that region.
The petition aims to highlight a troubling consistency in attitudes towards Pakistan, regardless of the leadership in Afghanistan—be it Zahir Shah’s visit, Sardar Dawood’s dictatorship, the socialist regime, the American-backed government, or the Taliban’s rule masked in religious rhetoric.
Today, the Taliban echo the same sentiments that leaders like Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, and Abdullah expressed two decades ago. They boast of having defeated both the Soviet Union and the United States, yet they overlook a crucial point: without Pakistan’s involvement in that struggle, the Soviet forces might never have left Afghanistan, nor would the communist regime have fallen. The challenge posed by America would have come later.
Even today, the Taliban’s rule is due to Pakistan. Pakistan has also paved the way for the Doha talks. The Taliban rulers are talking about the defeat of the United States. Remember that the leadership of the Taliban has formally negotiated with the United States in Doha and has come to power by signing the agreement.
In this agreement, the Taliban has written a pledge that Afghanistan’s soil will not be used against any other country for terrorist purposes. Yet, if the Taliban government continues to shelter the TTP and other terrorist groups in their country, it violates its commitment to the world.
In Pakistan, a certain mindset finds a safe haven for itself in the northwest; it glorifies the invaders of central Asia. These attackers first destroyed today’s Afghanistan, then killed in khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in today’s Pakistan. The Indus River crossed after these disasters.
The land of five waters comes somewhere later, but it is a strange spectacle that those who surrendered first consider themselves to be conquerors. It has become very important to marginalize this mindset in Pakistan, without doing so, Pakistan cannot move forward. The people of Afghanistan do not need the rule of gun-toting groups, but an elected democratic government, there must be general elections under the supervision of the United Nations.
Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic and linguistic country; there are ten large and many small nationalities that speak different languages; however, some are more in number and some are less; it is not a country owned by any one nation, tribe, or linguistic group. Russia, British India, and Iran have determined the borders of present-day Afghanistan, keeping in mind the protection of their respective strategic interests. Therefore, the rulers and scholars of Afghanistan need to re-study modern history.
There is no country in the world whose entire population belongs to one race or tribe, especially in federations. Every country is a beautiful bouquet of multi-ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups. America is a federation and there are people of hundreds of races, cultures, and languages; America is the country of all of them. India is also home to people of hundreds of races, cultures, religions, and languages. Iran is also home to dozens of ethnic and linguistic groups.
Arab countries also do not have a single race or culture. Russia is also in a similar situation, while China is also home to Han, Mongol, Uyghur and Central Asian ethnic groups, and all of them are collectively called China. Pakistan is also a federation and there are different races, castes, communities, languages and dialects here. All of them are Pakistanis.
Ending terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eliminating the facilitators of terrorists is the top priority and responsibility of both the provincial government and the federal government. Killings and destruction have been going on in Kurram district for a long time, but the steps that should have been taken have not been taken. However, a peace agreement has been reached there with the efforts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But the criminals who killed and destroyed Kurram, especially in Parachinar, are yet to be held accountable because the Jirga is silent on this issue.
If the law is implemented seriously and the government’s writ is established, peace can be established not only in Parachinar but also in the entire Kurram district. The erratic policy to eradicate the scourge of terrorism, whether it is that of the provincial government or the federal government, cannot be appreciated in any way because living and doing business in a peaceful environment is the first and fundamental right of the people of Pakistan, especially the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.