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Pakistan
Other South Asian Countries
Pakistan seeks to expand its relations with other South Asian
states, particularly Bangladesh. After an initial period of understandable
coolness following the civil war that created Bangladesh in 1971,
relations between the two countries have improved considerably.
Although Pakistan initially refused to recognize Bangladesh, formal
relations between the two countries were established in 1976.
Trade revived between Pakistan and its former East Wing, and air
links were reestablished. The presidents of the two countries
exchanged visits. Both countries often agreed on international
issues, sometimes in opposition to India's views. Pakistan also
joined the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),
which was founded through the efforts of Bangladesh's President
Ziaur Rahman. SAARC generally avoided political issues, instead
addressing social, economic, technological, and environmental
matters. However, SAARC's annual summit meetings provide an opportunity
for private discussions among the heads of government.
Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan, its Muslim neighbor to
the northwest, have never been easy. When Pakistan was admitted
to the UN, only Afghanistan cast a negative vote, the result of
Afghanistan's refusal to accept the Durand Line as its border
with Pakistan. This border, established in 1893, divides the Pakhtu
or Pashto-speaking people of the region. Afghanistan promoted
secessionist movements among the Pakhtuns in Pakistan, calling
for the creation of an independent Pakhtunistan or, alternatively,
for Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to join Afghanistan.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, however, had a profound effect
on Pakistan's geopolitical situation. Pakistan became a frontline
state in the Cold War. Altogether more than 3 million Afghan refugees
fled to Pakistan, and the country became a base for mujahidin
fighting against the Soviet forces and the Afghan communists.
Pakistan also became a conduit for military assistance by the
United States and others to the mujahidin.
After the Soviet Union completed its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
in February 1989, warfare continued between the mujahidin
and the Afghan communist government in Kabul. The demise of the
Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, however, resulted in
a reassessment of Pakistan's foreign policy, particularly in light
of the sweeping restructuring of central and southwest Asia. The
Afghan resistance had been unable to unseat the Kabul regime.
The heavy burden of the Afghan refugees continued, and Pakistan
wanted to be in a position to establish linkages with the newly
emerging Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Pakistan
decided in early 1992 to press for a political settlement. The
communist government in Kabul was ousted in May 1992 and replaced
by a fragile coalition of various mujahidin factions.
But the coalition did not include the most radical of the Islamist
mujahidin leaders, Gulbaddin Hikmatyar.
In March 1993, the government of Nawaz Sharif brokered an agreement
between President Burhanuddin Rabbani of Afghanistan and Hikmatyar,
Rabbani's longtime enemy, to share power in Afghanistan for eighteen
months and then hold elections. Under the agreement, Rabbani would
remain president, Hikmatyar would become prime minister, and they
would choose government ministers together. A cease-fire was also
to be implemented. It remains, however, for the agreement to be
ratified by the leaders of all Muslim groups involved in the war.
In 1994 fighting between mujahidin groups escalated in
Kabul, and a new flood of refugees moved toward the Pakistani
border.
Data as of April 1994
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