Pakistan – The Costs of Taliban Sponsorship

26 Jun, 2000    ·   375

Subhash Kapila details the reasons behind Pakistan's support to the Taliban and the costs that it has to pay as a result of such support
Subhash Kapila
Pakistan has fished in the troubled waters of Afghanistan since 1947.  Pakistani involvement became more pronounced in 1979 when it became the springboard for the US sponsored and CIA executed Islamic Jehad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan .

 

 

Following the American disengagement from Afghanistan the Soviet withdrawal from that country in 1989, Pakistan ’s involvement in the Afghan civil war intensified.  It culminated in the capture of major portions of Afghanistan by the Taliban aided by Pakistan ’s military, finances and manpower.

 

 

Talibanised Afghanistan today stands along with Pakistan as the exporter of Islamic Jehadi terrorism in South Asia , Central Asia and Middle East .  Both these financially unsound countries coordinate terrorism with the narcotics trade.

 

 

Pakistan ’s Strategic Interests in Afghanistan

 

 

Pakistan continued the British policy of divide and rule in Afghanistan ; its major security concern was the friendship of successive Afghan Governments with India till the 1990s.  It was also troubled by the independence demands of its NWFP Pakhtuns who wanted unity with their compatriots in Afghanistan .

 

 

Pakistan ’s strategic aims thus were:

 

 

1.                   Afghanistan should be ruled by a Pak – friendly Government, ideally a protégé.  This would contribute to the security of Pakistan ’s Western flank.

 

2.                   Afghanistan , so configured, would provide strategic depth to Pakistan in its confrontation with India .

 

3.                   Friendly Afghanistan would provide land-route access for Pakistani trade with Central Asia .

 

Currently, the strategic depth provided by Afghanistan in the nuclear environment of South Asia is the most predominant consideration.

 

 

Taliban – A Handy Weapon

 

 

The Taliban came into existence as an indigenous Afghan movement with the avowed objective to clean up the mess created by the fratricidal civil war.  Islamic fundamentalism and Jehadi zealousness provided the motive force.  The Taliban movement won widespread support with their ideal to end corruption, and restore peace order in Afghanistan as opposed to the fissiparous Mujahideen groups.

 

 

Pakistan was quick to grasp the potential of the Taliban to secure Pakistan ’s strategic aims in Afghanistan .  Pakistan had been frustrated in this effort by the divisions in the Afghan Mujahideen groups sponsored by Pakistan .  It provided the Taliban with the resources they needed to fulfill their widened ambitions to control the whole of Afghanistan . Pakistan worked through its ISI to provide the Taliban with finances, weapons and military equipment, besides Pak Special Forces cadres, airforce pilots and army cadres for direction of the war effort.  In parallel with this effort, Pakistan enlisted the support of its Islamic Fundamentalist organisations (the various Jamaats and Harkats) to swell the ranks of the Taliban with militant cadres from the thousands of ‘madrassas’ run in Pakistan .  Any observer of the Afghan scene would conclude that a ragtag combination like the Taliban could only succeed with sustained and organised external military assistance.  Senior Pakistan Army officers coordinated and directed this assistance.  General Pervez Musharraf was prominent in this programme.

 

 

The Costs of Taliban Sponsorship

 

 

Pakistan has been temporarily successful in achieving its strategic aims in Afghanistan .  The costs of its Taliban sponsorship have been and will be heavy.  Domestically, the Pak economy is on the verge of collapse, and could generate political and social upheaval.

 

 

Pakistan has prejudiced its foreign policy relationships and traditional supporters due to its Taliban sponsorship.  United States has ended its special relationship with Pakistan , imposed sanctions on Afghanistan and demanded extradition of Osama bin Laden.  China is uneasy with the spread of Islamic Jehadi militancy to Sinkiang.  Iran is agitated over Taliban persecution of the Afghan Shia population.  Russia and the moderate Muslim republics in Central Asia are also agitated over the Islamic Jehadi nexus between Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan .

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

Pakistan ’s sponsorship of the Taliban may have enabled achievement of its strategic aims in Afghanistan .  However, these games can only be played by global or regional powers who can bear the political, military and financial costs.  Pakistan ’s political instability and economic woes do not permit it to sustain its Afghan adventure, even with narcotics smuggling revenues, or Saudi and Gulf dollars.  Pakistan has got into a Catch 22 tangle.

 

 

 

 

 

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