KARACHI, 7 December — In the midst of momentous events that have specifically transformed its own security considerations, Pakistan is quietly adjusting to new realities by a shift in its domestic as well as foreign policies.

And Afghanistan casts its shadow in both domains. It is significant that Pakistan wasted no time in welcoming the power-sharing accord made by rival Afghan factions in Bonn on Wednesday. In addition to that, it offered to contribute to the reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

On the domestic front, a comprehensive strategy is in the works to suppress religious extremism. There have always been proposals to deal with sectarian and ethnic terrorism and to achieve what the officials have described as “deweaponisation” of the country. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider was seen as the most vocal proponent of checking the influence of militant religious groups.

But there seemed elements within the establishment that reportedly blocked proposed campaigns against religious militants. One reason for this hesitation was the relationship that Pakistan had fostered with Taleban. At another level, freedom movement in the Indian-held Kashmir was also seen as an inspiration for the religious militants.

Even though the domination of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan had initially dampened Pakistan’s spirits and there was considerable scope for acrimony and mistrust, the situation now poses no loss of strategic interests. On the other hand, the new pragmatism has dictated some very welcome, regional reconciliation.

On Wednesday, Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister of Northern Alliance, who will retain this position in the interim Cabinet, also affirmed that Afghanistan will be a good neighbor even for its former adversaries — and he was surely alluding to Pakistan. However, a more encouraging development is mending of fences between Iran and Pakistan.

Only Kashmir issue stands out as a source of deep anguish in the context of regional peace. Observers are, however, certain that after Afghanistan, relations between India and Pakistan will attract the attention of the Western alliance and some new initiatives are already being debated in diplomatic circles.

President Pervez Musharraf has certainly scored a point by gaining widespread acceptance of his assertion that Kashmir stands in the way of normalization of relations between India and Pakistan.

Still, some hints about the winds of change that are likely to blow in the near future were available in statement made by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during her recent, private visit to India. She said that those who are trained in camps outside the disputed territory of Kashmir have to be classified as terrorists while Kashmiris themselves are struggling for their right to self-determination.

She is a shrewd politician and even though Musharraf has vowed not to let her return to power in the next round of elections in October 2002, her Pakistan People’s Party is the only large party that stands united and loyal to its leader in self-exile.

Apart from how he wants to reinvent Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies, Musharraf’s own future, in a political sense, seems secure.

He has already said that he would remain as president even after the elections and the induction of a civilian government and there is, at this time, no visible threat to this ambition. He wants to preserve the reforms that he has initiated.