Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Sadiq Khan said on Monday that the relations between the two countries cannot go forward without a solution to the matter of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Addressing a seminar titled “A Holistic Appraisal of the Security and Governance Challenges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Khan said that Pakistan and Afghanistan’s relationship has been ‘troubled’ since day one.

“There is no reason for it to be so, it can be peaceful and cooperative based on soft power,” Khan said.

He added that the biggest hurdle to improving relations with Afghanistan has always been getting the attention of the people in charge. He added that during his five-year tenure as Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul, he never received any instructions from the government.

Khan also said that there was a lot of ‘smoke and noise’ regarding Pakistan’s matters with Afghanistan. As an example, he cited the fact that there has been a massive discussion on in the country even though only 568 Afghan refugees have been repatriated by Pakistan while there have been no such issues in Iran which has sent back over a million refugees.

However, he also discerned a pattern emerging in Pakistan about hatemongering towards Afghanistan. He added that three years ago, there was no such thing in Pakistan even though there were hateful narratives existed in Afghanistan.

“We have made Pakistan look like Afghanistan,” he said.

He described the TTP as a ‘flashpoint’ in the relations between the two countries. He described the banned terrorist organisation as a challenge that ‘cannot be tolerated’ by Pakistan. However, he said that Afghanistan must cooperate with Pakistan over TTP if relations are to improve.

“Afghanistan has to work with us on this, if they are not working with us then all deals are off,” he said.

“The solution is not necessarily killing people, the solution is not necessarily arresting people and handing them over to Pakistan. The solution is restraining it, the solution is containing them on which I think no one should have any objection,” he said.

He added that ‘Pakistan can be very helpful to Afghanistan’ if the instances of cross-border terrorism end.

Khan said that there was a list of 500 people who had crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan to carry out terror attacks.

“About half of the people coming to attack Pakistan are Afghan nationals,” he said, adding that they were related to notable families and were often major Taliban commanders.

“The solution is to have a firm policy, we need to work with people sitting in Afghanistan controlling that country,” Khan said.

The special representative said that Afghanistan has 44,000 villages, Taliban control every single one of them, a feat that has not been achieved in history before. However, he added that control over villages does not mean that the Taliban control every person in the country.

He added that despite a ban from the Taliban supreme leader for ordinary people to carry weapons, TTP was openly carrying arms inside Afghanistan. He said that the supreme leader’s orders on Afghans crossing into Pakistan were also being broken.

Calling for ‘awareness’ among the Taliban leadership, Khan said, “Are they waiting for a 9/11-like solution? When Afghan people will pay the price for two decades.”

He said that fighting the TTP is a development issue for Pakistan but not one of survival. He said that the TTP was ‘bound to lose’ but Pakistan needs to minimise its losses as it fights the short-term war.

“We should be very clear about engagement with Afghanistan, even if we fail 100 times we should try 101 times,” he added.