President Ilham Aliyev outlines Azerbaijan’s Foreign Policy vision at 4th Shusha Global Media Forum

DND Report

Islamabad, Pakistan: “The recent escalation in hatemongering against Pakistan Army by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders such as chief Fazlur Rehman and Secretary General Abdul Ghafoor Haideri is more linked with economic losses than to political issues”.

This was expressed by several government officials and politicians with the condition of anonymity because they are not officially authorized to talk with the media on this sensitive issue.

One official who is in the middle of looking after national security said that the reason behind the anger of JUI-F is not merely due to political losses rather than the economic ones because the Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) and smuggling amounting to over 3600 billion rupees per year, had been providing share to all important leaders of JUI (from Sindh, KP, and Balochistan). He further said that JUI-F leadership is deeply linked with Ameer Afghan Taliban Haibutullah, and the majority of his seminary students/teachers and almost all stick-wielding guards are Afghans, showing deep rooted links with Afghan Taliban and Afghanistan.

“He (Fazlur Rehman), believes that by entangling Pakistan Army, he may be able to put pressure to get space for the criminal Afghan terrorists. JUI-F accounts are putting out old clips as new to show their defiance to Pakistan for pleasing Afghan Taliban. Will it only show that how Fazlur Rehman and his family/cohort have been acting as a veritable arm of Afghan Taliban? Once the state policy became clear that Pakistan will not tolerate Afghan Taliban-supported terrorism, these political facilitators have started crying. No worries, better get exposed earlier rather than nurturing,” commented the senior official.

Another government source confirmed that the government has refused the demand of JUI-F to reintroduce the “Rahdari system” that offers crossing Pak-Afghan borders without proper travel documents, passports, or visas and to open Pak-Afghan borders. He, while expressing his bitterness, said that it is so unfortunate that certain Pakistani politicians are more loyal to Afghanistan than Pakistan and serve the cause of Afghanistan rather than thinking about the future of Pakistan. He, however, was of the view that Pakistan must show consistency in its decisions and must follow uncompromised border management at western borders, such as Pakistan follows at eastern borders. He claimed that Pakistan faces the brunt of a soft border policy with Afghanistan, and today’s security problems of Pakistan mostly lie in what Pakistan compromised during previous governments. He was blunt and claimed that the ‘majority of KP-Balochistan politicians’ are partners in smuggling, illegal businesses, drug and weapons transportation, and even hosting terrorists from Afghanistan because of their economic benefits, and they will remain putting pressure on civil and military leadership to show a softened posture towards Afghanistan.

When asked to comment, a former Senator from KP was of the opinion that JUI-F had been habitual of blackmailing Rawalpindi and Islamabad for a long time, but now the situation has changed, and both (civil and military leadership) are not listening, and they have refused to be blackmailed.

“The sharp tone may appear to be a sudden political development; a closer examination suggests that it is the continuation of a narrative that has steadily evolved since JUI-F’s electoral setbacks in 2018 and again after the 2024 general elections. Fazlur Rehman is not happy with Pakistan’s Foreign Policy towards Afghan Taliban and the government’s decision of 2023 to send illegal Afghans back to Afghanistan. His speeches have repeatedly argued that governments should derive a pro-Afghanistan Foreign Policy that Pakistan had been following in the past, but constant involvement of Afghan Taliban behind terrorism in Pakistan compelled Islamabad to modify its policy towards Afghan Taliban and illegal Afghans living in Pakistan,” commented the former Senator.

He claimed that Attaur Rehman, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, and Fazlur Rehman have huge economic stakes; that is why they are consistently demanding opening up Pak-Afghan Transit Trade, allowing Afghan refugees to keep living in Pakistan, and opening Afghan-Pakistan borders. When asked whether political alienation and isolation could be a reason behind JUI-F’s increasingly hostile tone, he answered that JUI-F had lost significant political influence at both the federal and provincial levels, so it lost leverage to dictate government to follow a pro-Afghan Taliban policy, and yes, this factor also played a role in the hyper mode of Fazlur Rehman.

“From this perspective, today’s confrontational narrative of JUI-F should be seen less as a longstanding democratic principle and more as a reaction to diminished political leverage and losing economic benefits JUI-F had been enjoying for the last 50 years,” the former Senator commented.

A senior journalist who had been covering Afghan issues and was posted inside Afghanistan for covering the Afghan War during 1995-97 and then in 2003-06, Agha Iqrar Haroon, argued that the timing of JUI-F’s criticism coincides with Pakistan’s tougher security posture toward terrorist violence linked to Afghanistan and stricter enforcement of policies concerning undocumented Afghan nationals. He added that these developments have affected constituencies historically associated with the party, and this is the reason that leadership is targeting Pakistan Army to get some concessions for the Afghan Taliban regime.