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Kabul: The years-old Durand Line dispute between the two countries came to the fore again with the Taliban preventing the Pakistani army from building fencing and military posts on the Afghanistan border. Pakistan hoped that the issue would be resolved during the Taliban rule, but the construction of fencing and military posts was stopped by the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Taliban, taking a big step, has constituted a joint ministerial committee on Monday to solve this problem.
The decision to set up a joint committee of ministries was taken in a meeting chaired by Abdul Salam Hanafi, the second deputy prime minister to the Taliban government of Afghanistan. It is reported that the purpose of the Joint Committee is to resolve the problems of the Durand Line and also to address the security problems that may arise in future. All issues related to these should be resolved through mutual understanding.
According to the report, this step comes after the visit of Pakistan’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf to Kabul. A delegation from Pakistan led by NSA Yusuf returned to Islamabad on Sunday evening after holding talks with several officials of the Islamic Emirate during a two-day visit. On the other hand, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the purpose of the visit was to discuss Pakistan’s proposals to deepen economic engagement.
During the visit, Pakistan offered Afghanistan capacity building and training assistance in several areas including health, education, banking, customs, railways and aviation. Both sides reiterated their commitment to the early completion of three major connectivity projects, the Kasa-1000, the TAPI and the Trans-Afghan Rail Project.
However, the opinion of political experts of both the countries differ on this issue. A political analyst in Afghanistan pointed out that a committee should have been set up that would work on removing the fence. This is an issue that will not be resolved through the formation of a joint committee. The issue pertains to the decision of the Afghans on both sides of the Durand Line. The Durand Line is the name of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is named after a British colonel from the 1890s. Afghanistan has always refused to formally acknowledge it.
Recently, this matter of border dispute came to the fore when the Taliban stopped the construction of a fencing and military post by the Pakistani army in Nimroz province of Afghanistan. Eyewitnesses living in the border district said that the Pakistani army had entered 15 kilometers into the Afghanistan border and was getting construction done. According to a report, the Pakistani army was trying to build a military post in Chahar Burjak district of Nimroz province of Afghanistan.
In this matter, a few days ago, Taliban commander Mavallawi Sanaullah Sanagin had warned Pakistan that we will never allow this to happen in any way. Whatever Pakistan had done earlier, it has done it. But now we will not allow them to do any such thing. Now there will be no fencing here. However, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said recently that the border dispute with Afghanistan will be resolved through peaceful means and diplomatic efforts.
