Failure of Afghan policy

IT is often argued that Pakistan lacks a clear and independent Afghan policy. What the establishment has historically pursued on the Afghan front has largely been an extension of its India-centric approach. Once a pro-India regime was dislodged in Kabul, Islamabad appeared uncertain about navigating the new reality. Much of the establishment and its aligned intelligentsia held utopian expectations of forging transnational mega projects and cultivating a friendly regime in the neighbourhood.

Those belonging to the millennial and Gen X cohorts may recall the slogans and chants from po­­litical rallies of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, a po­­l­­i­­tical alliance engineered by Gen Hamid Gul to counter Benazir Bhutto’s PPP and to preserve the so-called gains the establishment had made throu­­gh its involvement in the Afghan jihad....
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