Syed Ishfaq Bukhari
The role of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the region has become more important with the announcement of CPEC. The upcoming hub of Gwadar is all set to change the shape of international trade in South Asia. In order to resolve key issues and to bring peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan consistently been holding dialogues with Taliban on the request of Trump. Cooperation of Pakistan and Afghanistan is vital for Asia in order to achieve the larger cause of regional connectivity, peace and harmony . So in order to work and fight togetherly against terrorism ,Pakistan, China and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) vis-a-vis anti-terrorism cooperation during a second trilateral ministerial dialogue in Kabul on 15 December 2018.
The MoU was signed by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Chinese as well as Afghan counterparts. These collective efforts were required to address the common challenge of terrorism. Pakistan, Afganistan and china collectively have to extend all possible cooperation to build trust and confidence between Pakistan and Afghanistan and china .In order to have people to people contact, trilateral Tarde relations China proposed to assist in establishing connectivity projects including a rail line between Peshawar, Kabul and Kandahar, and by this way Afganistan can become party in CPEC. Moreover, China has expressed its willingness to support Afghanistan and Pakistan in building immigration reception center and drinking water supply schemes.
But all this is expected when Pakistan and Afghanistan will strongly determine that they will not allow any country territories for terrorist activities against each other or any other countries. Pakistan shares border with Afghanistan and has a vital role to play in this peace deal. U.S. President Donald Trump wrote a formal letter to Khan asking for his help to bring the Taliban to the table for negotiations. Imran Khan said the U.S. has changed its tune by requesting help instead of saying Islamabad is not doing enough, as U.S. officials have previously insisted. Pakistan has convinced the Taliban that neither U.S. nor Taliban were winning and there is absolutely no military solution to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Taliban were further sensitised to focus on the rebuilding of Afghanistan through international funding of their homeland rather than empty slogans of victory .An unstable Afghanistan threatens Pakistan, therefore Pakistan has immense interest for the peace in Afghanistan. Therefore, Pakistan immediately responded to US request to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan. Let us pray that this leads to peace and ends almost three decades of suffering of the Afghan people.
(The author is a religious scholar from central Kashmir. Views are his own)
