Stressing that both Pakistan and Taliban are playing a double game with each other, senior Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir said Afghan Taliban doesn't trust Pakistan and refuses to acknowledge Pakistan's many years of tacit and not-so-tacit support for the group's fight.
Writing an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Mir said the Taliban wants official diplomatic recognition and it wants other countries to unfreeze Afghan its funds, however, it also doesn't want to meet the international community's conditions on issues like human rights and women's education.
"The bottom line is that the Afghan Taliban doesn't trust Pakistan. Both have played double games with each other in the past. Now the Taliban is opening channels with India and Iran. It wants official diplomatic recognition for its new state, and it wants other countries to unfreeze Afghan funds that are held in foreign banks -- but it also doesn't want to meet the international community's conditions," Mir wrote for the Washington-based newspaper.
According to Mir, Imran Khan's government expected that the Afghan Taliban would do two things in return for Islamabad's support: surrender Afghan-based insurgents who are fighting inside Pakistan against the Pakistani military and settle a long-running border dispute.
"So far neither one is happening. And that explains why Pakistan still hasn't offered diplomatic recognition to the Taliban government in Kabul," he said.
Mir argued that the biggest stumbling block is the status of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that continues to wage war on Pakistani forces. "Pakistan has been trying to get the Afghan Taliban to cut off its support for the group."
The senior Pakistani also noted in his opinion piece that the Afghan Taliban has shown no willingness to intervene on Pakistan's behalf.
"And what about the border? The new Afghan government has shown zero willingness to acknowledge Islamabad's concerns. The Afghan Taliban has explicitly refused to accept the current border between the two countries, which was drawn by the British Empire during colonial days, effectively dividing the Pashtun ethnic group in two," he wrote.
Mir argued that the Taliban government in Kabul will have little hope of bolstering its relations with the West until it changes course.
"But the Taliban isn't listening to anyone -- including Pakistan, which has annoyed many friendly countries by blindly supporting the Taliban over the years."
Last week, the TTP killed five Pakistani soldiers and openly accepted responsibility. Pakistanis' patience is running thin. Stating that Pakistanis' patience is running thin, Mir said the moot question is "how long Islamabad can go on ignoring reality."
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