When I went to give my entrance exam at NUST, there was an Afghan boy there, he had left his home of Kabul with his family when he was young due to all the fighting, like many others. I was curious so happened to ask him what he thought about Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan, first replied something along the lines of “I’ve lived my entire life here, this is my country. How could I not like it as my own home, I cannot walk outside my house in Kabul without being questioned of my allegiance but here I can walk into the best university in the country as as someone who wasn’t even born here and attempt the entrance exam without being questioned of where I’m from.”
He proceeded to tell me how him and his family were eternally grateful to Pakistan for giving them a home during war, giving them jobs, healthcare and education, he particularly took the time to thank me despite not knowing me 5 minutes ago, just because I was Pakistani and he thought he was in my country.
He didn’t really sound like he was partial to either the Taliban or the afghan government, but he did say he had been to Afghanistan this last Eid and the general consensus among the afghani people was that the Taliban should be and will be in power, and that they had taken over a lot of the regions that the Afghan government still claims to hold.
This is just one story and doesn’t speak for everyone or maybe even most Afghans, but I just want to say, don’t generalize. You never know where someone’s heart may lie. As Pakistanis we should be the ones most understanding of why generalization is bad, when you toss and entire group of people or country under the bus just because some of even a lot of them are bad, because for the last 20 years that’s what the west has been doing to us and we feel so bad about it, they generalize our religion and our countries people, we complain yet do it to others the same.
Yes many of these afghan bad mouth Pakistan, despite being fed and raised here like our own, they are snakes. Especially the ones in powering Kabul. they can rot in hell, but just because a kid is born an afghan doesn’t mean he or she suddenly hates Pakistan. they only do that when they are fed a false rhetoric, and the bloody dumb minorities are the loudest, we see that everywhere, even at home. Afghanistan doesn’t have one voice, hopefully the other voice is highlighted when that false government on the other side topples and the peoples will takes over.
Be nice to the afghanis you do meet, maybe you will change their opinion about Pakistan. The ones who want to hate can hate, it clearly looks like they won’t be in power for long anyways.