Akbar Jan Marwat
IN the wake of recent terrorist attacks, orchestrated presumably from across the border in Afghanistan, Pakistan has decided once again to fence the very porous and volatile border between the two countries. The more than hundred years old border known as the Durand line has a controversial history of its own. The informal border between the two countries was decided between Sir Mortimer Durand a British diplomat, and the Afghan King Amir Abdur Rehman in 1893. In spite of repeated ratifications, no Afghan Government has accepted the Durand line as a formal border.Last year, Pakistan completed fencing 1,100 kilometre of the 2,400 km border on the southern half. The current round of fencing began in northern tribal regions of Mohmand and Bajoure over the weekend according to Pakistan Army. A lot is being written about Pakistan’s purported move to fence certain strategically important points of the border. Let’s examine certain important facts. Pakistan’s efforts to fence high-threat zones will also require technical surveillance and many border guards along the volatile frontier. This kind of border security mechanism, which the Pakistan Army envisages, has yet to be fully conceived. The Afghan governments implacable opposition to any type of barrier on the British era Durand line, will certainly, make implementation and efficacy of Pakistani fencing questionable. Pak-Afghan border cuts through Puktoon dominated tribal belt in north west and further south through Balochistan, bifurcating Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, Fata, Balochistan, and Gilgit- Baltistan from north eastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan. Tribesmen residing on both sides have too many commonalities to be separated easily.No doubt the fencing of the border threatens the way of life of communities straddling on both sides of the border, who have traditionally paid very little heed to the border. But at the sometime, Pakistan cannot completely ignore the movement of Saboteurs across the border, who cause terrible havoc in Pakistan. Pakistan’s effort at fencing certain high threat areas on the Afghan border can by no means be compared with the Israeli wall blocking the Palestinians, or the much publicized wall that trump intends to built between Mexico and the USA. No doubt the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be seen as one of the most dangerous place in the world. However the opponents of the fencing assert, that the humanitarian dimension should not be eclipsed by security considerations alone. They point out that creating new hurdles for the long-suffering tribes people could be counterproductive in the prevailing circumstances. On the face of it, the fencing or closure of the Pak-Afghan border, would hit a land locked Afghanistan harder than Pakistan. Detractors of the fence, point out that when the fence could not be built during Musharraf’s time, when funds were not a problem because of American war in Afghanistan, how could Pakistan build fence now, when funds are much more difficult to obtain? On the other hand, proponents of some kind of control over movement of people and goods across the border have a long list of valid arguments also.
They claim that there being virtual anarchy in large areas of Afghanistan, all sorts of undesirable elements have been infiltrating into Pakistan from Afghanistan. The elements include terrorists, smuggles, drug traffickers, foreign spies and saboteurs.
The proponents of the fencing claim, that our enemies including India have found it convenient to send across the unmanaged border, money and agents, to create mischief in Pakistan. According to their argument, with the fencing of the border, not only would the security situation improve in Pakistan, but economic situation of Pakistan would also improve with the curbing of smuggling especially in the garb of Afghan transit trade. The amount lost to the Pakistani Economy due to smuggling in the guise of the Afghan transit trade comes to around Rupees 330 billion. It is also claimed, that the high cost of the managing the border would be more than offset in the long term, by the stoppage of all kinds of smuggled goods, and the enormous losses that this smuggling is causing to Pakistan, s economy. In view of these opposing arguments, it can be concluded: That very strict monitoring and fencing of the entire Pak-Afghan border may not be best solution, as it can cause Pak-Afghan relations to deteriorate as well as causing tremendous inconvenience to border tribes. 100% blockage of undesirable elements from Afghanistan may still not be guaranteed.
But at the same time, Pakistan cannot just sit back and watch all kinds of mischief being planned and executed from across the border. Fencing of high threat areas especially in Mohmand and other agencies, with stricter control and monitoring on official border crossings like Torkham and Chaman, may be the better option. As Afghanistan also claims that Afghan Taliban having sanctuary in Pakistan can cross the border at will to attack Afghanistan. So it would be in Afghanistan’s interest also to cooperate with Pakistan, in stricter control and management of the border.
