Kabul is now ruled by a hostile group of people. Apparently, the regime does not need Pakistan’s support anymore or for Islamabad to work as a conduit between Af­ghanistan and the world. The ruling Taliban seem confident to stay in power after floating the country’s budget and ink­ing contracts particularly in the mining sector worth billions of dollars with countries oth­er than Pakistan. Afghanistan’s fro­zen assets by the US and UK amount­ing to nine billion dollars are no more under discussion. Formal bilateral and trilateral arrangements are at hand to put the country on track. TAPI and CASA seem a far cry now. Oblivious of running the country on any prescribed form of government such as democra­cy, the Taliban are struggling to survive with the dreams of turning their coun­try into the Islamic Emirate of Afghan­istan. Clearly, Kabul’s confidence level about its eastern neighbor is touching perhaps the lowest ebb. For Pakistan, the feeling seems mutual.

Secondly, Kabul no longer seems to be interested in obtaining official rec­ognition for the revamped Taliban re­gime. The demand of recognition is not reverberating anymore. On the other hand, voices on forming a broad-based, human rights orientated government in Kabul have also died down. In re­cent months, only China has expressed concerns over Afghanistan’s ‘exclusion’ from the international community. Like all other countries, China also does not formally recognize the Taliban regime. However, Beijing believes that to be recognized, the Taliban must ‘introduce political reforms, improve security and........

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