Khar’s visit to Kabul

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to Kabul does not and cannot have much to be hoped for. Some public opinion makers, though, have a heady brew of gender and religion to feed their audience.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is one of the most heavily guarded personality in the country. Corridors are cleared of people and even parking lots are combed whenever he comes to the Parliament. During his press conferences, journalists are not allowed to carry their mobile phones in most cases. His party has always taken a public stance against Taliban and religious extremism for they have claimed responsibility to assassinate his mother Benazir Bhutto.

A few days ago, Bilawal had openly stated that terrorists from Afghanistan are a threat to Pakistan. Above all, the last thing he now wants is to get photographed with Taliban and give his opponents an unending supply of material to hit his already shrinking vote bank. This could be one of the reason why Khar was sent to one of the most important visits to Kabul on November 29.

But it is unfortunate that here in Pakistan, people prefer to conjure up gender issues between the two neighbours, forgetting that that the Foreign Ministry has sent a woman to a country where women are tormented to give the world a positive message. Since most commentators are social media influencers, speaking against Taliban ban on girls’ education or other misogynist measures is an integral element of their activism and all their arguments about gender issues are too strong to be put down.

After all, Yousaf Khan Sadri, an Afghan activist, told me that if anything, the attempts to draw a pro-women message from Khar’s visit is in fact a severe blow to all efforts for empowerment of Afghan women. “What is the point of Taliban being respectable to a foreign lady when they do not waste a second thought beating our Afghan women in public. All this pomp and show is reduced to nothing when Afghan Army Chief declined to meet the Pakistani minister because of her gender,” he said.

I remember back in 2011 when Khar visited India as a Foreign Minister. The Indian media ran as many crass headlines as possible. The looks, style, jewellery, dresses, and shoes of the minister were the centre of Indian media’s attention. The same things are also popping up in public discourse and a photo, fake or real, of Khar’s shoes lying in the middle of long boots of Afghan Taliban is occupying social media space.

However, global diplomatic platforms and media outlets are seized with discussion about the outcome of this high-profile activity.

The university where I have been teaching media for the past 15 years caters to the highest number of Afghan students, male and female. At a time when Taliban took over, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad had a record of about 10,000 Afghan students studying in Pakistani universities, over 1000 of them only at International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI).

At a larger extent, pro or anti-Taliban, Persian or Pashto speaking, all Afghan boys and girls have one thing in common that they all aspire to land in the US or Europe. One will always witness these young Afghan people seeking reference letters to be presented to Western universities; Islamabad is just a passage for them to reach their destinations. They are far more familiar with international affairs than the students of many other nationalities.

Meanwhile, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a trouble spot. Amir Zulfiqar, the former inspector general of Islamabad now serving as Deputy Director General of Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), told me in an informal meeting that his force succeeds in foiling efforts of smuggling about one-fifth of global narcotics, mostly at Pak-Afghan border. Some global institutions including the UN organisations need Pakistan to tighten border control to curb smuggling. Simultaneously, others seek from Pakistan to relax border control to facilitate movement of human beings.

When Taliban took over Kabul, the Pak-Afghan border was the focus of global attention. The US and the EU countries implored Pakistan to help the people they want to leave Afghanistan. Many countries like Norway and Switzerland kept one ambassador for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The EU, the US and even Germany also have special representatives for Afghanistan. These representatives had lengthy talks over the years with Taliban before they toppled Ashraf Ghani’s government. When all their calculations went wrong, they looked to Pakistan for help and Pakistan responded. All the men and women, including the wife-beating Tova Moradi, 83, the last Jew in Kabul, were dispatched to the US and European countries.

But all these countries where Afghans aspire to live had dismantled their embassies and even pulled back their local staff from Kabul. It did not stop Pakistan from facilitating working of their diplomats from Islamabad, where the first embassy or processing centre of Taliban regime was also set up.

All the same, no one other than China, Russia, Qatar etc. had agreed to recognise Taliban government. But all of them handed Pakistan a list of their demands for Taliban. They want Taliban to respect women, children, liberties, rule of law, education, labour rights, democracy and what not. Pakistan delivered their demands to the Taliban and in return received Taliban’s demands such as release of frozen funds and recognition of their government. Due to lack of research in diplomacy, Pakistan loses its neutrality in this process. As a result, Afghan people hold Pakistan responsible for the atrocities Taliban mete out to them and the world perceive Pakistan as untrustworthy handlers of Taliban.

Even Khar’s visit to Kabul offers no solutions to any side because Pakistan lacks diplomatic professionalism to find solutions. Optics are all our think-tanks and academies are masters of turning out and they are doing what they are best at.

The writer teaches mediatization at International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI)