What Pakistan doesn’t discuss openly is this central tension: Pakistan has long treated the Afghan Taliban as friends - preferring them to Pashtun nationalists (which it viewed as threatening, fearing that they would mobilize Pashtuns on the Pakistani side of the border as well) and to the current Afghan government (which it sees as friendly with India) - while the Afghan Taliban’s friend and ideological twin, the TTP, has posed an existential threat to Pakistan and killed tens of thousands of Pakistanis. As part of the Extended “Troika” on Peaceful Settlement in Afghanistan - which also includes the U.S., China, and Russia - Pakistan has signed a statement saying a Taliban emirate would be unacceptable to it. The implication, presumably, is that the road to a comprehensive Taliban military victory would be violent, setting up many of the same concerns identified above. Pakistan is less clear about what a Taliban military victory would mean for it, but discusses it in the same vein as the possibility of civil war in Afghanistan. Third, this would increase the amount of refugee flows to Pakistan (which has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the 1990s, including 3 million at present), which it can’t afford. Second, Pakistan fears that this would set up space for the resurgence of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group responsible for killing tens of thousands of Pakistani civilians and attacking the country’s army, security forces, and politicians. But Pakistan argues that a protracted civil war in Afghanistan would be disastrous for it, on three dimensions: First, insecurity from Afghanistan would spill over into Pakistan. Many are skeptical of this given Pakistan’s support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and the sanctuary the group later found in Pakistan. Pakistan’s official stance is that it would prefer a peaceful outcome in Afghanistan, some sort of a power-sharing arrangement reached after an intra-Afghan peace deal. And the situation in Afghanistan may define the future of the relationship as well. The result is a relationship with the Biden administration that has been defined by Pakistan’s western neighbor, as has been the case for U.S.-Pakistan relations for much of the last 40 years. Pakistan responds that it has exhausted its leverage over the Taliban. has made it clear that it expects Pakistan to “do more” on Afghanistan in terms of pushing the Taliban toward a peace agreement with the Afghan government. Pakistan has indicated repeatedly that it wants the relationship to be defined more broadly than with regard to Afghanistan - especially based on “geo-economics,” its favored current catch-all for trade, investment, and connectivity - and has insisted that it doesn’t want failures in Afghanistan to be blamed on Pakistan. withdrawal from Afghanistan and increasing violence on the ground there, the U.S.-Pakistan relationship stands in uneasy limbo. (14) Spin FM, which was due to begin broadcasting last February, remains in limbo, at least until after the Supreme Court hear the appeal towards the end of this year.Six months into the Biden administration, amid the U.S. (13) For two years the album had been stuck in limbo, until someone introduced him into the right circles. (12) Children from the day nursery made their own party food and danced and performed the limbo. (11) But the decision still left them in limbo until a final decision could be made on the park's future. (10) While listening to calypso music, many of those being entertained like to dance the limbo, a dance very popular among Grenadian Americans. (9) The government could have been left in limbo for weeks in conditions where the IMF, the World Bank and business leaders are demanding immediate action to try to pull the economy out of a deep recession. (8) I suffered for eight months in limbo whilst awaiting the Crown Prosecution Service decision. (6) children left in an emotional limbo (7) But the move was widely criticised with North Yorkshire MPs claiming it was ├ö├ç├┐absolutely scandalous├ö├ç├û and had left passengers in limbo for a further two years. (5) In time, argues Winnicott, the transitional object is relegated to limbo, neither mourned nor forgotten, just losing its meaning. (4) The controversial defection law was put on ice yesterday pending a Constitutional Court decision, leaving some politicians in limbo and others scrambling for survival. (3) Play limbo, dance barefoot and swim like a tropical fish. (2) And now the collapse of a proposed move to Blackburn Rovers has left his club career in limbo as he concentrates on the vital role of Australia's over-age captain in Greece. (1) The inquiry is in limbo because of the decision of the court today.
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