Author: Muhammad Yousif Khan
If you watch the movie ‘Prince of Persia: Sands of time’, you will notice that the story revolves around the pursuit of a dagger that can turn back time and transport people into the past. One can draw parallels between this movie and the dilemma in which Afghanistan finds itself right now. This dagger has now manifested into an Afghani reality from a mere cinematic experience. The dagger represents the war against terrorism, the consistent threat of terrorists, the bloodshed of thousands, and the country rapidly receding in terms of progress. A mere wrong push can tumble us back into the past where terror used to scare us off the streets.
Before we dwell on who holds this dagger in Afghanistan’s dilemma, we need first to establish some facts. The United States is pulling out its troops after an exasperating war and an equally unfortunate defeat. The Taliban are over the moon lately and have been celebrating their victory by intensifying their attacks on Afghan civilians. On the other hand, Pakistan is giving final touches to the fence across the Durand line (which took over three years to complete) to keep the terrorist outfits at bay.
However, the reality is much deeper than this. Over the past few weeks, significant progress has been made by Pakistan and the U.S. under the Biden administration, our U.S. counterparts want a smooth retreat, which is why both parties have reached out and have held several high-level meetings. This reach-out can be seen as the first set of official contacts made by both countries since Joe Biden’s election. The only word that gets out of those meetings is the U.S. re-affirming their commitment towards peace in Afghanistan and better cooperation with Pakistan. The deal itself was sealed a long time ago during Trump’s administration when Pakistan was threatened with FATF blacklisting. One can presume that these were covert tactics used as a buffer towards ensuring Pakistan does not go soft on the looming terror threat while the U.S. planned its escape from Afghanistan. Likewise, the U.S. withdrawal and admittance of defeat was a gradual revamping rather than an overnight revelation stimulated by Pakistan’s consecutive operations against the terrorists.
Coming back to the question of the bearer of the dagger. The U.S. wants nothing to do with the dagger; it cannot afford to spend another dollar on attempting to neutralizing the Afghan Taliban, especially when the other side is stronger than ever. The Taliban themselves are averse to the idea of the dagger’s existence in the first place. They are too close to complete control over Afghan soil. The Afghan himself is weak and dreads the dagger since he will bear the brunt of the violence should the peace process get disrupted. Consequently, the dagger lands in the hands of the Pakistani state. A country that now holds the fate of regional security is expected more than ever to keep the momentum going. Pakistan detests the powers of this dagger as much as anyone, but it cannot shy away from the fact that only it can carve out the future with it.
The vastly unpopular phrase in this part of the world, ‘do more’, comes into play here. Pakistan now needs to ‘keep doing more’ to ensure that its soil does not get used for terror ever again. The deeply institutionalized extremist roots and the ever-increasing incidence of sectarianism can cause a possible fire; a fire that can water down the progress of the country and impact thousands of lives in the process. To prevent any such thing from happening, Pakistan needs to cut out the extremist roots that have led to terrorism prevailing in the past, which can be done in several ways. In her book Pakistan Under Siege, Madiha Afzal mentions the underlying causes of extremist mindsets and how carefully dealing with them can prevent people from further lining up to become an accomplice in terrorism. She highlights ‘illiteracy’ as the main factor behind this. At present, around 60% of Pakistani individuals are illiterate. This is a discouraging fact. Many people live below the poverty line and have no proper knowledge of their religion which makes them vulnerable to the misconstrued assumptions of ‘Jihad’, ‘Islamic state’ and ‘Sharia’. This can be exploited by various extremist parties to derail peace in the region. In the coming few years, the Pakistani state needs to address this systematically through a series of much-needed educational and social reforms that uplift people’s living conditions and increase the literacy rate.
The General in Prince of Persia observed, “It is said that some lives are linked across time…”. Those lives are our children and their future generations who will live on this soil and live their lives in peace. However, this can only be possible if we educate the masses and mitigate extremism. It is up to the Pakistani government to bury the dagger six feet under and ensure that the concerned parties can coexist peacefully.