How Taliban's power in Afghanistan can be attributed to Pakistan's sectarian regime?

Afghanistan is on the brink of returning to the reign of terror that the Taliban has imposed after it successfully restored power following a week. The Taliban has restarted its attempts to reintroduce medieval, authoritarian law, in spite of its insistence that it'll be a "different" Taliban. Of course, nobody is foolish enough to buy the Taliban's propaganda, not even it hated neighbour Iran, which has been trying to work and weaken the Taliban at the same time.

Yet one country that doesn't get so much "credit" for building this sectarian, terrorist group to fill the power void for so long: Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan plays a major role in making Afghanistan a mess - and also turning the country into a sectarian territory uncontrolled by the authorities, if not to say Pakistan "kill itself" with it.

We have never imagined the role of Pakistan in the terror Afghans have been suffering. But it is necessary to understand its background.

Pakistan was a unique country as it was born in 1947 following the British partitions of its Indian colony. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Shiite founder of Pakistan, believed that Pakistan should follow a secular, liberal democratic country, at the best of the newborn state. But he would not live to see his project completed.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of modern Pakistan.

When Jinnah passed away a year after its creation, the conservatives began to formulate a plan to slowly take over the country, often under ethnoreligious hardline. In 1953, anti-Ahmadi unrest broke out in Pakistan, under the leadership of the Jamaat Party, an Islamist party. At the same time, thousands of Hindus started to desert the country and flee to India. Meanwhile, Pakistan had become increasingly assertive over the affairs of its Eastern province (of majority Bengali ethnicity) bordering India and Burma. A year after the Bengalis Huseyn Suhrawardy and Iskander Mirza became PM and President of Pakistan, a coup in 1958 brought General Ayub Khan made Pakistan increasingly sectarian as he adopted brutal segregation against the Bengalis in favour of his Pashtun-Punjabi base.

Not until Ayub Khan stepped down in 1969, by this time, he successfully turned Pakistan into a half-police state, where he granted more power to the ISI, the military intelligence service of Pakistan. Ayub Khan's successor, Yahya Khan, would go on with disastrous domestic policies, especially how Pakistan mismanaged the Bhola Cyclone in 1970, resulted in the eruption of East Pakistan's independence war a year later. Yahya Khan also nominated his protégé, Zia ul-Haq, for the future power seed. Zia ul-Haq, of course, would prove to be even more radical and conservative than Ayub and Yahya.

Even with the step down of Yahya Khan, the first step of refurbishing Pakistan as a conservative Islamist state was finished. Zulfikar Bhutto went to become PM of Pakistan, as well as President of the country, but his efforts to reform the country's increasingly corrupt judicial system were constantly thwarted by the ISI and its Islamist allies. Zulfikar remained defiant, this touched the interests of ISI and the powerful intelligence agency staged a bloody coup in 1979, resulting in the execution of Zulfikar. There, a new man came to power.

Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan's third military dictator.

Zia ul-Haq became Pakistan's third military dictator in 1977 and he initiated many political reforms that would go on to finalise the Pakistani government's characteristics. One of his most important reforms was the radicalisation of Islam in Pakistan.

Zia himself was a former veteran in the war in Jordan in 1970 when he helped the Jordanian monarchy to slaughter thousands of Palestinian fedayeens. From there, he went to be further educated in Saudi Arabia, which would become his ally in the 1980s. During his time in Saudi Arabia, he was impressed by the conservative nature of the Kingdom and went on to emulate the same reign in Pakistan. He believed in building radical, Salafi-like characteristics in Pakistan to encounter the threat posed by India. His process was accelerated, however, not by India, but by his neighbours in the west and the north.

In 1979, Iran went from a secular authoritarian monarchy to become an autocratic Islamic revolutionary state led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini didn't hide his intention of making Iran an exporter of Islamic revolutionary but his Shi'a-overt tactics led to dissatisfaction from the Gulf monarchies. When war between Iraq and Iran broke out, Pakistan opted to remain neutral. Yet Zia ul-Haq's paranoia about the Iranian threat prompted him to receive billions of aids from Saudi Arabia. But in 1980, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Pakistan sought further helps from the United States and Saudi Arabia. By then, the money flooded to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia increased, Zia ul-Haq used them for two reasons: to immediately backed the most radical faction among the Afghan mujahideen fighting the atheist authoritarian USSR; and most importantly, the imposing of Salafi version on Pakistan. Under Zia's rule, Pakistan became increasingly conservative.

Zia died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, but Zia's missions were completed. There would be no change in Pakistan as the Islamist characters of the country would be the main defining key. Saudi Arabia, which poured billions to aid Pakistan, had now obtained a major influence to bargain in the country. Still, not all Pakistanis were happy with the new clothes. One would step up to put a fight against such hidden tyranny Pakistani government was having.

Benazir Bhutto would be twice PM of Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfikar, became the new light in a darkening picture of Pakistan. By this point, Pakistan was severely damaged by the ISI and the Islamists. Bhutto was determined to curb the money funding for the dangerous Afghan mujahideen, whom she feared could be the drain of Pakistan's economy - a prophecy that would become real. Bhutto fought hard to promote women's rights and equality, as well as trying to rebuild the country's secular and liberal order - none of them would be done due to military's interference. In 1994, Benazir suffered shock news when her brother Murtaza was murdered. In 1995, a military coup was foiled, but she struggled to contain the powerful military before she was dismissed in 1996 by the military-backed President Farooq Leghari. She went to exile aftermath.

During the time of Benazir's reign, she was instrumental in trying to investigate how the military dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq sought to bring the Afghan mujahideen's most radicals into power and the consequence. She knew already that there were some dangerous factions within the Afghan fighters, to a point she convened on behalf of Pakistan, urging the Afghan coalition in the early 1990s to reconcile and rebuild an already destroyed Afghanistan and to avoid a future war. When she was deposed in 1996, the Taliban began to surface for the first time. As Bhutto was exiled to Europe, the government of Nawaz Sharif, a student of Zia, began to draft money and funding to the Taliban. By promoting Pakistan's self-interest above the civilian life of Afghanistan, Sharif ensured Pakistan's role as an internal and external threat to ordinary Afghans. About the Taliban? During this early phase, many Taliban leaders were influenced by the ISI and Pakistani Armed Forces' conservative Deobandi and Salafi movements. Taliban fighters received training in Pakistan as civilian oversight was ignored. The Pakistani government also brought thousands of Pakistanis into the war on the Taliban's behalf.

Nawaz Sharif, three times PM of Pakistan, a businessman renowned for his controversies.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Nawaz Sharif was his education in Saudi Arabia. His admiration for the Saudis is equal to that of his late teacher Zia. Nawaz believed on sectarian ideology, further cemented power for the very powerful Sunni group. As for the result, after the Ahmadis, the Shiites began to feel greater pressure. Many of them had fled Pakistan for new life in India and Western Europe, some to a point integrated within either Indian or Iranian diaspora groups. But no one did more harm to Pakistan than Pervez Musharraf, a military chief that ruled the country as President from 2001 to 2008.

Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistani military chief and President.

Renowned for his short-tempered attitude and a chief ideology of Salafi and Deobandi movement. Musharraf enriched the sectarian government that Nawaz Sharif and Zia ul-Haq left behind. He persuaded for economic liberalisation, but the money was pocketed to his allies. He did nothing to address the increasing disparity between the marginalised Shiites and the majority Sunnis. At the same time, Musharraf secretly provided safehouse for Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad for ten years.

Fortunately, many liberal Pakistanis had become frustrated with its corrupt military, and demanded for changes, mounting the opposition against the army's government. Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan following an agreement that allowed more women's rights. Benazir still carried a clear agenda: she sought to purge the corrupt army and to investigate the money that used for "war on terror", something Musharraf failed to honour for. By the time of Sharif and Musharraf's reigns, Pakistan had "donoured" more than one billion dollars, to fund the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Many Afghans had pointed out that the Pakistani government was open about channelling aids for the Taliban to keep them intact with the medieval, fundamentalist laws, all were done freely from using the tribal area of Khyber Pakhtunwa, which is known for its lawlessness.

Considering the role of ISI and Pakistani Armed Forces, Bhutto's return could be a direct threat to not just only their power, but also the Taliban, which is opposed by Bhutto herself. It was believed that Musharraf orchestrated, though unclear, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto so that Musharraf would not be investigated. Eventually, he achieved the wanted, with Bhutto's death in 27 December 2007. An important element of the death of Bhutto was the involvement of Al-Qaeda and Taliban had been discussed. As I've mentioned, Bhutto's open opposition to Pakistan's involvement in the bloody Afghan Wars and her confrontation against the Taliban, had infuriated the terrorist's group leadership, to a point they wanted to see Benazir out, once and for all. There was no secret that many Afghans held a high regard on Benazir Bhutto, she for once had shown a greater willingness to repair the past mistakes of Pakistan's backing for Taliban.

With Benazir Bhutto's murder, there was no other that could dare to prevent continuing Pakistani money flooding to Afghanistan for the Taliban. The mood was done, and what would come later, is the history. The influx of jihadists from Pakistan to other countries, especially in Afghanistan, was the result of inefficient civilian leadership, adding to the mismanagement of Pakistani Armed Forces and its inner terrorist-aligned behaviour. Recently, widespread anti-Shi'a protests, murder of Shiites across Pakistan, have also unravelled the image of the country. Pakistan has also been renowned as the world's biggest school of fundamental jihadism, adding to the terror the Sikhs and Hindus are facing.

This has helped shaping the Taliban's attitude. As long as Pakistan remains the same sectarian country, it'll benefit from the terror the Pakistani authorities exported, what's happening in Afghanistan examined this. And there would be no one opposing it, too. Today, it becomes even clearer that the civilian government of modern Pakistan is just a shadow for the military and ISI. It's not a secret that the United States has become increasingly resentful of Pakistan, to even a point Washington almost designated Pakistan as state-sponsored terrorism, which could lead to the revocation of Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally, if not for Saudi Arabia and Turkey's lobbying efforts.

It should be known that Pakistan has a very large military and is also a nuclear power, meaning that Pakistan can be extremely paranoid. But with the country being under frequent turmoil, infighting and corrupt government, it provided the seed for Pakistan to become an exporter of terrorism. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan is listed as one of Asia's most corrupt nations.

Unless there is a person like Benazir Bhutto to take place of Pakistan and to fix the messes the country is having, the Taliban's power in Afghanistan will be unlikely to wane. Sadly, this may just come as fiction due to how Pakistan is behaving.