Fakiha Noor
Recent tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan reflects more than a diplomatic disagreement which exposes a deeper crisis of unfulfilled expectations on both sides. The bone of contention between both countries includes the issue of the Durand Line, cross-border spillover and the continuing blame game on countering violence and terrorism. What appears on the surface as a security dispute is, in reality a breakdown of trust in layered history, geography and shared society.
The temporal relations have been severed by October 2025 due to Afghanistan’s denial of authority on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s presence in Pakistan. This denial raises the questions about the severing of the ties and collateral damage on hard lines responses and why they are supporting the TTP. On the other hand, Pakistan still assumes this relationship is bilateral, but it is no longer the bilateral in nature, it now carries wider regional and strategic implications.
The closing of the border is a cockish act by making Pakistan itself a deficit of trade and deepens the economic depression on the governance by disrupting the long- standing linkages. Such actions may signal pressure, but they also punish ordinary people on both sides. The compartmentalization of pitting Afghan Pashtoon versus Pakistani Pashtoon identities is making the arena tenser internally and externally, creating tensions that cannot be managed through administrative closures alone.
For more than four decades, Afghanistan and Pakistan have shared socio-economic upfront ties at the most human level such as divided families, intermarriages, cross-border communities and intertwined livelihoods etc. Pakistan has also borne the burden of a huge influx of refugees of about 5 million for more than 20 years after the Taliban regime with considerable generosity. These realities mean that the relationship cannot be understood through the only lens of state security. As Former President Karazai said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are congenital twins or in a marriage which cannot be divorced which ultimately shows that neither country can detach itself from the consequences of other’s instability.
As Pakistan bear much tension, so Afghanistan needs to share the responsibility in return. The way forward should not rest primarily on kinetic operations like Azm-e-Istihkam or Azb-il-Haq or punitive gestures. What is needed is accountable dialogue mainly focused upon peace building through confidence-building measures like commemoration of civilian martyrdoms or trust over distrust, because the eroded trust merely gives you reaction rather than resolution.
However, Pakistan can play brilliantly on its front foot to ease the security imperatives on both sides by using SCO frame work and preventive diplomacy to shun the question of distrust which lingers. The building of proper dialogue with accountability and verification of processes can create off-ramps enabling both sides to be able to step back without losing a face. States in conflict react to pressure, but durable peace emerges when pressure is underlined with trust.
For Peace , it is necessary to turn pressure into grass-root resolution with measured coercion , where sending the refugees is not the only reliable solution. A sustainable future in Pakistan and Afghanistan ties relies on the structured engagement, mutual accountability, bilateral governance plans with security sector reforms and political courage. The challenge is not simply to manage the border but to rebuild the fractured knot that history, society and geography will not allow either side to abandon.
