THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN AND ITS AFFECTS ON PAKISTAN

Thesis: The Soviet invasion along with the United States’ utilization of Pakistan to
dissolve communist efforts in Afghanistan resulted in significant political, social, and
economical consequences in Pakistan.

I. Political affects on Pakistan resulting from the Soviet invasion to Afghanistan.

A. Pakistani and US training of the Mujahedeen to combat Soviet efforts.
1. This is a direct act of the US to maintain political dominance over a
communist USSR.
2. General Zia and the ISI acted as a mediator for the US, providing
militant training in Afghanistan.
B. Subsequent to the Soviet invasion the US provides Pakistan with military
support.
1. US recognize Pakistan occupies a position of geopolitical importance.
2. In response Pakistan accepts assistance package from US to strengthen
militant resistance.
II. A consequential response to the communist invasion is evident throughout the
social structure of Pakistan.
A. An influx of refugees from Afghanistan caused significant problems for the
Pakistani government to deal with.
1. Incoming refugees occupy Pakistani real estate and labor.
2. The quantity of refugees needed sufficient financial support for food
and housing.
B. Violence greatly increases due to US assistance and the impeding war culture
from Afghanistan.
1. A Kalashnikov culture formed due to the import of weapons by the US
to support Mujahedeen militants.
2. Organized crime and drugs increase due to the greater volume of violent
culture entering the country.
III. Pakistan saw economic fluctuations, both progressive and adverse, from various
components of the Soviet-Afghan war.
A. Pakistan receives significant foreign aid to stimulate its economy.
1. Reagan offers Zia 6 year, $3.2 Billion assistance package that would
stimulate Pakistans economic strength.
2. Economic aid enables Pakistan to improve agricultural, health, and
energy development as well as repay loans.
B. Economic deficiencies.
1. Economic gain was seen in consumer imports but not education, health,
and rural development.
2. The Soviet withdrawal afforded Pakistan a significantly less support for
future development.

1
 With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 came a worldwide concern

surrounding the political influences and implications of an impending superpower

entering South Asia. The Soviet expansion made Pakistan emerge as a frontline country

in the deterrence of the communist power, however various facets of Pakistan’s national

structure and security were compromised when the invasion occurred. Pakistan facilitated

the training of Afghan Mujahedeen soldiers who in turn rebelled against Soviet soldiers

with aid from the United States. An influx of a great number of refugees poured in from

Afghanistan to Pakistan causing a major upheaval for the social and economic structure

of the country. Violence increased and contraband flooded over borders along with

millions of refugees, all of which produced an underground culture dealing in illegal

narcotics, weapons, and prostitution. Financial aid, mainly from the US, allowed Pakistan

to form capable defenses in resisting the Soviet armies, as well as make some economic

developments. Although the invasion occurred within Afghani borders there were several

consequences that detrimentally affected Pakistan and through this paper the aspects of

those consequences will be brought to light. The Soviet invasion along with the United

States’ utilization of Pakistan to undermine communist efforts in Afghanistan resulted in

significant political, social, and economical consequences for Pakistan.

The US and Pakistan had a shared but different motivation for improving

Pakistani economic and defensive positions: the U.S. being motivated to resist Soviet

communism while Pakistan was primarily seeking international recognition and stronger

defenses against India. This formed mutual interests that facilitated an important political

agreement between these two nations. With the invasion of the Soviets into Afghanistan

Pakistan developed political legitimacy and became an important nation utilized by the

2
US in the attempt to combat Soviet forces. The war in Afghanistan gave rise to General

Zia Ul-Haq, who endorsed the proliferation and efforts of the Mujahedeen, an insurgent

group that fought against soviet the Soviet military establishment. General Zia was a key

role in mediating American support in the dissolution of Soviet forces and “during the

Afghan war, Zia allowed the CIA to funnel growing amounts of para-military support to

the Afghanistan rebels through Pakistan.”1 Zia stressed the importance of repressing the

Soviet movement through Afghanistan into Pakistan and was receptive to US influence in

the matter. The training of the Afghan Mujahedeen was implemented by the Pakistani ISI

(Inter-Services Intelligence) by extension of the CIA, however “all training of

Mujahedeen would be solely carried out by ISI in camps along the Afghan frontiers. No

CIA officers would train Afghans directly.”2 United States interests also relied on the ISI

to distribute weapons, money and training to the Afghan rebels and from 1983 to 1997

“the ISI trained about 83,000 Afghan Mujahedeen… and dispatched them to

Afghanistan.”3 The aid that the US provided General Zia and the Pakistani military

during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan provided the nation with capable means of

deterring the conquests of Soviet forces, which was in the political interest of both the US

and Pakistan.

In response to an impending Soviet threat, Pakistan sought a military and

economic assistance package to provide them with legitimate defense capabilities.

“Pakistani defense planners realized its military and economic weakness and sought

1
A. Z. Hilali, US-Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (Burlington, VT: Ashgate
Publishing Co., 2005), 119.
2
Steve Coll, Ghost wars: the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and
Bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 64.
3
IBP USA, USA International Business Publications: Pakistan Intelligence, Security Activities &
Operations Handbook (Washington DC: Int'l Business Publications, 2002), 44.

3
external support in order to strengthen its bargaining position vis-à-vis India.”4 Initially

the Carter Administration offered General Zia a $400 million assistance agreement but it

was not accepted because it fell far short of the financial support and resources that

Pakistan would need to fight off Soviet troops. However a secondary agreement later

offered by the Reagan administration was accepted. “The Reagan Administration's offer

of a 6-year, $3.2 billion package of support, divided evenly between economic and

military aid.”5 This assistance package was in a large part designed to meet the needs of

Pakistani air defense upgrades and a large portion of the package went to the procuration

of F-16 fighter jets. The Pakistani ground military was also to be improved by updating

tanks, anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, and attack helicopters. From a Pakistani point of

view there was great benefit in forming an alliance with a superpower that was willing to

provide a means of defense that the Pakistani government could still autonomously

control. The assistance that Pakistan received also helped legitimize Zia Ul-Haq’s

political campaign by stimulating military and economic growth.

From an American point of view, Pakistan’s search for assistance created a

unique opportunity to gain a geopolitical position which strengthened their ability to

prevent further Soviet intrusion into South Asia.

The United States, as a great power with global responsibilities and commitments,
took advantage of Pakistan’s desperate need for military and economic
assistance… in order to have access to Pakistani bases and other vital facilities so
as to expand the scope of it’s policy to contain Soviet expansionism.6

4 A. Z. Hilali, US-Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. 1.

5 Francis Fukuyama, Pakistan since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Carlisle Barracks, PA:
Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 1982), 6.

6 A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan, Contemporary
South Asia 11 (winter 2002), 3.

4
Regarding the controversy surrounding this area in South Asia it is imperative to

recognize the geopolitical qualities that the region holds. It lies between the energy-rich

Persian Gulf and the Asia Pacific, at the convergance of many significant shipping lanes.

South Asia also forms a connection between Europe and Africa to the Far East. “South

Asia has been recognized as a geographical area of major strategic significance through

which pass the routes connecting Europe, Africa and Asia.”7 The United States described

Pakistan as a ‘front-line’ state against the Soviet threat and recognized the importance of

deterring Soviet control in the area. The geopolitical importance that Pakistan held was

one of the primary reasons the US got involved in South Asia, for they needed to retain

political influence in the area.

The social structure of Pakistan was detrimentally affected by the Soviet invasion

of Afghanistan, one of the many consequences of warfare in domestic regions. One of

these major outcomes from the Soviet war was the great influx of refugees that Pakistan

received from Afghanistan from the beginning of the invasion in 1979. “Over the next ten

years, as anti-Soviet Mujahadeen fought with Soviet forces, about 3.9 million Afghan

refugees settled in Pakistan, putting pressure on its meager resources.”8 They settled in

386 camps along the Northern borders of Pakistan, brining with them livestock, vehicles,

weapons, drugs, and many other things that caused a disturbance in the social structure of

Pakistan.

7
A. Z. Hilali, US-Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.14.
8
Yasmeen N. Mohiuddin, Pakistan: a global studies handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO,
2007), 28.

5
 A significant cause of increased violence in the social structure of Pakistan, due to

the Soviet war to the north, was the distribution of Mujahideen weapons, provided by the

US, into Pakistani society. Through US weaponry aid, the Mujahideen warriors received

a great sum of AK-47 assault rifles intended for use in combating the Soviet forces.

These rifles and other weapons were smuggled into Pakistan by the Mujahideen and sold

for nominal prices to Pakistani civilians. “Undoubtly, ethnic and sectarian clashes and

organized crimes are the direct result of weaponization of Pakistani society which

resulted in the gradual militarization of the society over the past two decades.”9 Due to

the great influx of weaponry used in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, a great amount of

violence broke out throughout Pakistan, which has since resulted in the gradual

militarization of the nation’s society. This violence in the social structure of Pakistan can

be directly attributed to an influx of Mujahideen weaponry originally provided by the

United States.

Environmentally, the area that the refugees settled also suffered because of an

increased number of livestock feeding on inadequate and fragile pastureland. “The United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that Afghans brought with them

45,000 camels and 25,000 donkeys for commercial purposes.”10 This great influx of

livestock not only caused major damage to the ecology of green areas but also caused

resentment among the locals, who saw the incoming refugees as invasive. In addition to

damaging grazing pastureland, Afghan refugees also had a hand in deforestation and

erosion. Refugees caused a great change in the landscape by cutting down trees for

9
Abdul Nasir Dotani, The Impact of Afghan crisis on Pakistani Society since 1979 till date
(Kyoto, Japan: Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, September 18-19, 2011), 4.
10
A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan. 8.

6
firewood for cooking and heating, causing erosion that lead to serious landslides, which

in turn caused communication problems along with environmental issues in Northern

Pakistan. Locals who realized these environmental repercussions from the northern

exodus showed indignation toward the Afghan refugees, creating much social division.

Another socially destructive element of the Afghan war that affected Pakistan was

the production of narcotics in Afghanistan being smuggled into and distributed

throughout Pakistani society. “In order to generate revenue for sustenance of war against

USSR, the Afghan warring factions resorted to poppy cultivation and drug trafficking.”11

The narcotic sales created a drug mafia in the bordering areas of Pakistan, making heroin

gradually accessible throughout the whole country. “By 1987-88 the drug trade was

earning at least $4 billion a year- more foreign exchange than all Pakistan legal exports

combined.”12 The increase in narcotic production caused the number of addicts in

Pakistan to spike, being higher than ever before as narcotics became gradually available

across all of Pakistan. The introduction of drugs and a drug culture in Pakistan due to the

means of generating financial support to resist the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had

adverse effects on Pakistan’s social structure, adding to the negative consequences that

had come of the invasion.

To add further challenges to Pakistan’s domestic society, sectarianism, introduced

by General Zia and encouraged by the US, was promoted as a religious weapon against

the Soviet Union. Zia effectively promoted the Islamisation of Pakistan by directing

resources toward their sect, in hopes that the opposing ideologies of Islam and the Soviet

11
Abdul Nasir Dotani, The Impact of Afghan crisis on Pakistani Society since 1979 till date. 4.
12
A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan. 13.

7
Union would act as a resistance. “Pakistan-based Deobandi Sunni organisations and

madrassas began to receive weapons and funding from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in order

to provide support and training for Sunni Afghan fighters in the context of the anti-Soviet

jihad in Afghanistan.”13 The conflict between Sunni and Shia communities in Pakistan

has since claimed thousands of lives, adding to the many destructive effects of the war so

far. Even after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in Afghanistan Sunni-Shia clashes

continued to dissolve the social structure of Pakistan. “Ultimately the autonomy of

traditional religious institutions and Zia’s Islamisation of Pakistani society injected the

insidious poisons of religious sectarianism, fanaticism and bigotry into the country,

pitting sect against sect and region against region.”14 The sectarian clashes invoked by

general Zia’s Islamisation of Pakistan, for purposes of raising anti-Soviet religious

fanaticism, created a destructive social culture throughout Pakistan, adding to the many

facets of violence born from the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

At the dawn of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan was forced to

consider the security of its nations borders and sought economic assistance to ensure its

interests. Further effects of the Soviet-Afghan war on Pakistan include economic

fluctuations, as the country received foreign financial aid. Throughout the Soviet invasion

on Afghanistan Pakistan received great amounts of foreign economic aid, due to an

overall motivation to encourage the nation to resist communist influence in the area. The

Zia regime attracted a large amount of assistance and “by 1985 Pakistan had become the

fourth largest recipient of US bilateral military assistance… with the approval of the $7.4

13
Raza Rumi, The Rise of Violent Sectarianism, Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict Trends in
Pakistan (Islamabad: Jinnah Institute, 2011), 3.
14
A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan. 15.

8
billion military and economic aid package.”15 The assistance led to some significant

progressions in economic development, but most of all provided the country with a

legitimate military ability to defend itself.

Although Pakistan had received the assistance packages primarily to increase its

defense capabilities, the aid also allowed the country to develop economically. Among

some of the domestic improvements that were contributed to, irrigation and farm water

supply improved the agriculture industry in Pakistan. “USAID provided $954.2 million in

development aid to Pakistan and $205 million for the development of energy and

management projects.” 16 The United States also played a role in promoting needed

credits from the International Monetary Fund and securing loans for Pakistan from the

World Bank. From an economic perspective the Soviet conflict brought a much-needed

attention to the financial deficits Pakistan faced.

The Soviet military invasion proved to be a ‘good war’ and seemed a welcome
relief to Pakistan because it brought the West promptly to Pakistan’s rescue, with
promises of renewed economic and military assistance and a boost to the
country’s declining prestige.17

The foreign aid that Pakistan received helped spur economic growth and domestic

developments. Pakistan was able to make some socio-economic progress through foreign

aid, but benefitted far more in areas of national defense than anything else.

Although there was some economic progress that resulted in foreign aid to

Pakistan the majority of the funds it received was put towards “imports of consumer

15
Arshad Zaman, Economic relations between Pakistan and United States: aid, trade and North-
South issues (Berkely, California: Universtiy of California), 1988. 2.
16
Dilara Chowdhury, "Major Powers Involvement in South Asia," BIISS Journal 7 (1986): 329.

17
A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan. 3.

9
goods rather than education, health and rural development.”18 During the Zia regime the

focus of international economic assistance was focused primarily on the country’s

defense, while other economic components suffered a loss of support. For instance

“between 1982-88 the share of expenditure on education and health fell from 2.1% of the

gross national product to 1.5%.”19 Development continued to suffer as more money was

allocated to the Defense program. The opportunity for Pakistan progress in economic

development soon passed as the majority of its foreign assistance from the US was

withdrawn, as the Soviet force left South Asia. With the withdraw of Soviet troops from

Afghanistan, Pakistan was no longer seen as an important state in the superpower battle

and lost the assistance the US provided to deter communist forces.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan made Pakistan a frontline state in the

deterrence of communist influence in South Asia. After bringing to light the many

consequences Pakistan faced from the invasion, it can be determined how the nation was

affected during this event. Politically, Pakistan’s interests aligned with those of the

United States, as both countries collaborated to resist communist efforts in Afghanistan.

This collaboration, however, drew Pakistan into a great involvement with the war,

hosting destructive properties of the war. As war spread in Afghanistan millions of

refugees fled to Pakistan, bringing with them the adverse properties of war, that included

weapons, drugs, sectarianism, and a great deal of violence. These factors brought

destruction to the social structure of Pakistan. Economically Pakistan received many

beneficial foreign aid packages that helped it gain legitimate defense capabilities and

18
A. Z. Hilali, The costs and benefits of the Afghan war for Pakistan. 17.

19
Omar Norman, Political Economy of Pakistan (London, England: Oxford University Press,
1994), 35.

10
absolve some foreign debt. Despite some of these economic benefits the majority of

consequences that ensued the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan caused a great deal of

destruction in Pakistan that is prevalent to date.

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