The price of patience |
Over the decades, the policy of Pakistan towards its western neighbour has been based on one simple assumption: a stable government in Afghanistan will eventually lead to peace in the region. Many political and security prices were paid by Islamabad, and a lot of international criticism too was taken in the hope that Afghanistan would not turn into a zone of aggressive foreign power. But, considering the escalating border tensions at the end of 2025, it appears that this longstanding approach has produced mixed, and often disappointing, results.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are said to be the "mother of all relations", yet such relations struggle to exist when the expectations are one-sided. Ever since 2021, Pakistan has opened its economy and logistics to Afghanistan, but in the bargain, it has witnessed a steep increase in militant violence, most notably by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), otherwise known as Fitna-al-Khawarij. It is the typical Frankenstein........