Pashtunwali for peace
After over a decade spent fighting in Afghanistan, the West should commend the Pakistani military establishment on a masterful strategy, namely their continuing support for the Pashtun insurgency in the country. The fact that they have steadfastly refused to change approach over the past 10 years, despite huge US enticements and enormous punishment insofar as their image is concerned, internationally and crucially at home, is a testament to their commitment and their gamble against insurmountable odds. And it looks as though their bet is paying of.
By affording a modicum of endlessly deniable protection and support to the Afghan Taliban (the so called Quetta Shura Taliban) the Pakistani military establishment in fact holds a trump-card that makes it essential to any political accommodation with the insurgency, and thus in essence to any negotiating table on the future Afghan political dispensation, when Karzai and NATO leave in 2014.