In Pakistan, most discussions on Afghanistan and the Taliban lack details on what to do next

Afghanistan is the new black in Islamabad. Zoom seminars (Skype is so pre-Covid-19), in-camera briefings, talk shows and column space in newspapers – there is no forum for discussions in Pakistan that can afford to ignore its next-door neighbour currently. Unsurprisingly then, Afghanistan watchers are busy people these days as they juggle multiple speaking commitments.

They are surpassed by the man of the hour, Pakistan Fore­ign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, whose press talks now seem to be more frequent than Firdous Ashiq Awan’s. Last week, however, he also took time out to brief the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs along with National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf. The briefing was also attended by a bunch of journalists, much to the chagrin of some.

Despite the bleariness and lack of caffeine (which the minister too seemed to have missed if his testy exchange with the chairperson, Sherry Rehman, was any indication), it was hard to miss the running theme – or should it be themes? – in our “officialese” on Afghanistan: how the withdrawal of the international forces was inevitable because a military solution was and is impossible, how negotiations with the Taliban were the need from day one, the unravelling within Afghanistan at the present and…

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