Hence it was unsurprising that the sessions focusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan attracted big numbers at the LLF. The ‘Af-Pak’ region is at a crucial juncture with regards to internal as well as external policies, and with the withdrawal of US troops pending this year, the repercussions on the region has garnered serious debate.

The discussion titled ‘Afghanistan on the Brink’ really had the crowd tuned in to everything the panelists had to share. Ahmed Rashid, Hina Rabbani Khar, Maleeha Lodhi, Vali Nasr and Rashed Rahman tried to piece together the history of the war-torn region and comment on the country at a cusp of transition.

Nasr, author of The Dispensable Nation, and former advisor at the US State Department, was unwilling to give any guarantees regarding political order being protected by the Afghan police force after the US troop withdrawal. For him, regional consensus was a hard balance to attain, and with fears of the Karzai government “imploding and exploding,” the threat of the Taliban taking control of large parts of the country looked inevitable. Khar took this statement a notch further by emphasising the importance of Afghanistan’s stability for Pakistan’s: “No other capital is as important to Pakistan as Kabul is,” she said. Pakistan was always used as a tool, she argued, saying that the “strategic depth needed is trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan.” We can recognise this only if we learn from our history.

For Lodhi, former ambassador to the US, the question that arose time and again was how big is the vacuum that will be left behind by the major player, the US. With even experts of the region stumped as to what might happen in Afghanistan in the coming months, Lodhi warned that “Pakistan must prepare for the worst, while it seeks to assist Afghanistan in its varying transitions.” Rashid lamented how the greatest tragedy of the war in Afghanistan was that though around a trillion dollars have been spent, no one can correctly predict how the country will look in the following months. For him, “elections will define Afghanistan,” and if plagued by controversies, rigging and tensions, will allow the Taliban to take advantage.

Shedding light on Pakistan’s role in 2014, all the panellists agreed with Lodhi that the key strategy to adopt should be to “contain forces of militancy within the border” before a security vacuum is present in Afghanistan. Concentrated efforts are integral to “break the nexus between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP.”

‘Reportage on Pakistan’ was another session that focused on Pakistan and also on Afghanistan, but this time from the point of view of reporting on and from conflict areas. Journalists Matthieu Aikins, Shahan Mufti, Zahid Hussain and Munizae Jahangir commented on the ever-changing and dangerous realities of Pakistan. Hussain, who has written extensively on Pakistan’s politics and is the author of Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle With Militant Islam, spoke on how there is never a dull moment for journalists in Pakistan. He also argued that “the best journalism comes during periods of resistance.” On reporting in conflict areas, as is Pakistan, Hussain shed light on how major nuances in conflicts remain uncovered with the rise in “embedded journalism.” This restricts access to information and only a particular side of the conflict is reported, with objectivity compromised.

Aikins took the neglect of objectivity further by highlighting how lack of security provided to journalists restricts them from getting around. Aikins has been reporting on Central and South Asia since 2009 and shared his experiences of reporting in Afghanistan. According to him, due to the complexity of the conflict and security concerns, it becomes difficult to be objective and report the “other side of the story.” An interesting fact that he brought to the fore was how in Afghanistan the state has not yet imposed strict censorship on foreign journalists reporting on the region, which is a stark difference from Pakistan. Many journalists who have been reporting on thorny issues such as Balochistan have been repeatedly denied entry into the country.

Shahan Mufti, author of The Faithful Scribe: A Story of Islam, Pakistan, Family, and War, summed up his journalistic ethics by stating: “for good journalism, you have to break laws.” For him, “journalists are not just citizens; they are special and have the responsibility to uphold democracy.” Mufti then also spoke on how readership has a great impact on what is reported: “While writing for a foreign audience, we have to ask ourselves, are we reporting to explain Pakistan, or just to explain the conflict / war.” Hussain elaborated that foreign publications only want “capsules” and are never interested in the whole story. According to Aikins, certain issues are more popular while others that matter, such as labour laws, do not get their due coverage, and are even censored extensively.

The writer is a member of staff