Ankara Accord: a good omen

The POST, Sun, May,06, 2007.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema

Both President Musharraf and Karazai agreed at Ankara to undertake coordinated efforts to fight against terrorism and vowed to promote peace, security and stability in the region. The meeting was arranged by the Turkish leaders to secure the much desired reconciliation and a positive understanding between the two estranged Muslim neighbors. Undoubtedly the efforts of President Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who not only sat in the meeting but also worked actively prior to the meeting to attain this objective.

President Musharraf and President Karazai not only identified terrorism and extremism as a common threat to their countries and  to the entire region but they also agreed to set up a Joint Working Group with participation of high level representatives of the three countries in order to monitor progress on agreed matters and to promote confidence building measures. The two leaders agreed to deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists and to elements involved in subversive and anti-state activities. Both Musharraf and Karazai also agreed to further strengthen their bilateral ties.

It is not too difficult to identify factors that have rapidly messed up the situation in Afghanistan and consequently effected Pak-Afghan relation adversely. Among those frequently mentioned factors include the limited writ of the incumbent government along with rampart corruption, the booming drug trade and the influence of drug barons on various stakeholders, weak institutions, the presence of large number of foreign forces and their indulgence in killing of innocent civilians, inability of donors to live up to their commitments, the slow reconstruction process, the increasing influence of India, the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation, vast control of the war lords and resurgence of Talibans etc.   

Undoubtedly the panacea of Afghan troubles revolves around what can be termed as ‘cooperative and friendly relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan’. To put the blame for its own internal troubles on the good intentioned Pakistanis had only strengthened the hands of those who do not want to see the advent of stable and friendly Afghanistan. In recent times many articles have appeared in non regional magazines depicting vast network of corruption, highhandedness of war lords, breakdown of law and order, inefficiency of the administrative net work even in those area where Talibans have no presence and are far away from Pakistani border. Indeed both the internal and external elements are actively working to sabotage the constructive drift towards what the Pakistanis want a stable and peaceful Afghanistan.   

The advent of Ankara Accord is indeed a welcome development. Many in Pakistan have not only been consistently promoting the notion of peaceful cooperation in order to attain the illusive commodity called a stable and friendly Afghanistan. But dwelling heavily upon blame game not only invoked strong reactions from the other sides but also the situation rapidly deteriorated. It is a well acknowledged fact that unstable Afghanistan could also take a very heavy toll of developmental pursuits in Pakistan.

Cooperation between the two countries would certainly enable to effectively deal with extremists elements and also accelerate developmental pursuits. The Ankara Accord sets the tone for future Pakistan-Afghanistan relations not just at the official levels but also would encourage at the level of civil society. The Accord clearly states that the two countries would enhance goodwill and introduce more and more positively orientated CBMs. In addition the two leaders agreed to evolve a mechanism for promoting interaction among political representative, academicians, media, civil society, sporting and cultural linkages.

Pakistan’s dilemma has been how to maintain friendly ties with the Afghans and make substantive inputs towards the strengthening of the incumbent Karazai regime and simultaneously check rapidly increasing Indian influence over Kabul regime. Not only the past policies of Pakistani governments clearly reflect its constructive efforts to facilitate Afghans but even the current efforts indicate that Pakistan is keen to see a stable Afghan regime. During the Afghan war against the Soviets the Pakistan government went out of the way to accommodate more than four million refugees and also facilitated the Afghan resistance groups in their efforts to get rid of foreign occupiers.

It is a well known fact that Pakistan’s open door policy towards the Afghans refugees eventually resulted in many complications whereas the Iranian policy was carefully carved. However it needs to be stressed here that following the ouster of the Taliban regime, Pakistan’s de-linking with Taliban has not yet fully sunk in among some quarters. The accusation that Pakistan is providing a sanctuary to Talibans is not at all true. However it is difficult to deny the existence of some sympathies for Taliban among certain sections of Pakistani Pakhtoons. This does not mean that Pakistan is not engaged in preventing the periodic undesired infiltration from some parts of Pakistani tribal areas.

The Ankara Accord clearly reflects the determination of the two Presidents to forget the past and move onward with positive attitude. The Accord is important in terms of having a tripartite mechanism which would review the progress on the agreed matters. Already a tripartite military commission exists which meets periodically. The presence of a third party in any joint arrangements tends to have sobering impact.

President Karazi expressed the gratitude of the people of Afghanistan to Pakistan for continuing to host millions of Afghan refugees. The two Presidents resolved to work jointly for facilitating orderly repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. The continuous blame game was only making things more difficult for the Pakistani authorities to effectively check the rise in number of people who were and some still are suggesting sending back all Afghan refugees and sealing the border. Such an eventuality could have created not only enormous difficulties for Afghanistan and may even have caused some problems for traders but would not also have been conducive to envisaged friendly relationships.

It is a foregone conclusion that a vast majority of people of the two countries would receive the Ankara Accord with a sigh of relief. One cannot deny the existence of a vast reservoir of goodwill among many the people of the two countries. This of course is the product of many factors including ethnic, linguistic, religious similarities etc. However it is still to early to conclusively ascertain that the latest accord would deliver the desired dividends. One cannot afford to ignore the fate of the accords in the past. A somewhat similar effort was made by President Bush in last September and the two Presidents agreed at the time to make efforts to defeat terrorism as well as extremism. Compared to the Washington agreement, the Ankara Accord appears to be little more specific.

While there is not doubt that history of agreements in which the Afghans were involved in past  is not very attractive, it is expected that this time the Afghan President would live up to his commitment and avoid employing one excuse after another. As mentioned above there are many in both countries who would like to see that their mutual relationships improve.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy research Institute.