Introduction:
Life often presents us with ironic twists, and one such instance is the recent decision by the Pakistani administration to expel Afghan refugees from the country by November 1. After fierce criticism from the Taliban administration, the Foreign office spokeswoman, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, has clarified that it will be done in phases. Pakistan claims that the recent attacks in the country are to be blamed on the influx of Afghan refugees from the bordering country.
In Bed with the Taliban
In August 1947, the partition of British India led to the formation of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern borders, and the two countries have since had a strained relationship; Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the UN following the latter's independence. Various Afghan government officials have made claims to large parts of Pakistan. The Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan, which remains a significant source of support for it. Since the Taliban's inception, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been providing them with funding, training, and weaponry. What is funny is that throughout the War in Afghanistan, Pakistan was the only reason that the West couldn’t kill the Taliban. On one hand Pakistan used to be provided with weapons and financial support by the US to prevent Taliban terrorists from crossing the border into Pakistan. Pakistan has been intimately associated with the Taliban since its birth in the mid-1990s. The ISI provided support to Mullah Omar when he founded the organization in Kandahar. It had trained Omar even earlier in the 1980s at one of its training camps for the mujahedin that fought the Soviet occupation of the country.
But on the other hand Pakistan used to actively aid these terrorists to escape from American military forces and even provide them with a safe haven. No one can forget how Osama Bin Laden was found in Pakistan just a few kilometers from the Pakistan Military Academy(PMA). In fact it is largely believed that the US administration under President Barack Obama decided against informing the Pakistani government about the strike that was about to happen in their country because it believed that the Pakistanis would simply let Bin Laden know about the incoming raid or worse move him to a different location themselves. Nothing more needs to be said about the clear cooperation between the Pakistani regime and Islamic terrorists.
The obsession with India
Pakistan not only allowed the escape of Taliban militants but allegedly facilitated their use of American-supplied weapons against India. The financial support which was provided to Pakistan to stop terrorists inside Pakistan was diverted to terror groups in and around Kashmir. The very tools meant to counter terrorism were, ironically, contributing to its growth. During Operation Swift Retort, Pakistani Air Force used the US supplied F-16 fighter jets against India. The jets that were given to the Pakistanis to destroy terrorists were used to attack India.
The Kunduz Airlift
Look no further than the Kunduz airlift or more popularly known as the
‘Airlift of Evil’. When the US backed Northern Alliance and members of the US military had surrounded the Afghan city of Kunduz in November 2001, right before they proceeded to attack, the Pakistanis requested the Americans to allow an air evacuation of some Pakistani Military personnel present in the city. Initially, the request was granted, with the assumption that this was a humanitarian effort to rescue their own.
However details which emerged later on claimed that Pakistan evacuated not only their regular military personnel but also members of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the top leadership of the Taliban.
You reap what you sow
Fast forward to today and Pakistan's decades-long flirtation with various extremist groups has started to backfire. Recent attacks in the country are indicative of the dark side of this complex relationship. Terrorist elements seem to be slipping out of the control of the Pakistani regime, and the pervasive radicalization in the populace has allowed terrorism to take root.
Pakistan which claims to be the so called ‘Defender of Islam’ has stooped to new lows in order to complete its goal of driving out all Afghans from Pakistan.
Landlords and real estate owners in Islamabad, have received notices telling them to evict “illegal Afghans” and their families by the end of the month or face action. Police have asked clerics in some of the city’s mosques to tell worshippers of their duty to inform the authorities about each and every Afghan in their neighborhoods. If this sounds familiar to you, that's because it is. The current steps being taken by the Pakistani regime mirror that of the Third Reich during their hunt for each and every Jew in the lands controlled by them.
The empirical results indicate that Afghan refugees have a strong negative impact on economic growth in Pakistan. The effect holds in both the short run and the long run, suggesting that the influx of refugees lowers real economic activity in the country. Ultimately, the study implies that hosting refugees can never be a boon to Pakistan's economy. And Pakistan's actions have finally come back to bite it.
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