ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is pushing for the completion of a fence along itsdisputed border with Afghanistan — and it wants the U.S. to help pay forit.
Less than 10 percent of the fence planned along the 1,456 miles (2,343kilometers) of mountainous border with Afghanistan has been completed sofar due to financial constraints. Even so, Pakistan Foreign MinisterKhawaja Muhammad Asif said the barrier should be finished by the end of2019.
Khawaja Muhammad Asif.Photographer: Asad Zaidi/Bloomberg
“It won’t cost them much,” Asif said of the U.S. in an interview on Feb. 2in Islamabad. “The war is costing them much more.”
Pakistan has come under increasing pressure to act against the AfghanTaliban and affiliated Haqqani network after President Donald Trump accusedofficials in Islamabad of allowing them safe haven. Last month, Trumpsuspended about $2 billion worth of military aid to the nuclear-armednation and accused Pakistan of giving “lies and deceit” in return for yearsof U.S. funding.
The border fence will stop the flow of militants crossing into bothcountries unchecked, Asif said, adding that Pakistan also considers thereturn of more than 2 million Afghan Refugees critical for peace. He calledon the U.S. to assist with the fencing and repatriation of the Afghanrefugees.
“It’s a free for all,” Asif said, adding that as many as 70,000 peoplecrossing the border a day. “These issues are facilitating terrorism.’’
When asked about Trump’s allegations, Asif said that Pakistan wanted betterties with the U.S.
“Both sides are trying to decrease the stress,” he said.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have denounced the other for harboringinsurgents, prompting relations to drastically sour in the past year.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said Pakistan is waging an “undeclaredwar of aggression” against his nation and has threatened armedconfrontation over the fence across the disputed Durand Line, which dividedthe largely ethnic Pashtun communities in the region during Britishcolonial rule.
Asif said the roughly 600,000 Afghan refugees that went back to their homecountry last year have largely returned to Pakistan. He said the camps arebreeding grounds for insurgency, and the international community must domore to help with the burden and conditions in Afghanistan for returnees.
Pakistan has faced repeated criticism for the forced return of somerefugees who have fled war across the border, which the United Nations saysis against international law.
Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency in Islamabad,said there were funding shortages for Afghan refugees as resources havebeen diverted to other places like Syria and Iraq.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have 235 crossing point, some frequently used bymilitants and drug traffickers, of which 18 can be accessed by vehicles,according to a report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network research group inOctober.
The Taliban can move with ease between the two countries in the oftenlawless border lands and are usually waved through by Pakistan securityforces, according to the AAN, citing conversations with multiple currentand former Taliban fighters, doctors and Afghans living in the region.Pakistan’s military has long denied supporting militant groups.
“Any free movement from their side to our side, or our side to their side,can breed mistrust and obviously some terrorist activity on our side or ontheir soil,” Asif said. “It’s in our mutual interest that the border isfenced.”