The New Afghan Government and the Inherited Difficulties!! By Hafeez Hassanabadi

 The New Afghan Government and the Inherited Difficulties!!

By Hafeez Hassanabadi

At last Ashraf Gani and Abdulla Abdullah succeeded in forming a joint government in Kabul with help of American intermediation after several months of nerve breaking tussle on both sides.  Afghans are expecting a positive change as they’re now weary of much bloodshed. They cannot get rid of terrible past despite changing different frontline role. Foes became friends and friends turned worst enemy. The pacifists started sabre rattling and entrenched themselves for war. Behind all this is a single character at work and that never changed its position right from beginning till today. There is no hope in future that it will ever change its position and play a positive role.  And that is Pakistan.

Now that Ashraf Gani has inherited Pakistan’s destructive intrigues, he needs to be extremely cautious about every step he takes in his efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. Dr.ug trafficking also needs to be given importance besides overall social development in the country as secondary importance.

 Apparently, relative to Karzai, things look far easier for Mr.. Ghani as he is going to take the responsibility of a country that is already on the track of development with the help of America and its allies in security and development sectors. However, things are not that easy as imagined, when we see the daunting tasks ahead faced by Ghani, they remind us of the problem Dr.. Najeebullah faced during his era! When the Soviet forces withDr.ew, people believed that Afghan army and the party of the incumbent government had the full potentiality to control the security situation and run the state affairs smoothly.

At the beginning Pakistan and America were behind the war, and apparently, there seemed nothing unusual as of a great game soft of at that time, but then what it was that destabilized Afghanistan was Pakistan’s ambition to establish a strong government in Kabul of its choice such as Taliban that could officially recognize Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And then one way or another, it could turn Afghanistan, like Balochistan, as a part of Pakistani confederacy; thus, later Pakistan would be able to annex it with no resistance from any quarter.

Raising such a force wasn’t a difficult task for Pakistan as it had already mobilized people into Jihad in the name Islam. Those who came in power after Dr.. Najeebullah persecution started a bloody tussle for power and it created conducive situation for Pakistan to exploit it, as they were fighting each other for power beyond basic Islamic teaching.

Like Dr.. Najeeb, Ashraf Ghani doesn’t have much option to put the house in order. Currently all its policies are dependent on putting pressure  on America to stop Pakistan from interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs so that it could concentrate on country’s socio-economic development and political stability. Ashraf Ghani knows well that without advancement in the security front, nothing is possible. On the other side, Pakistan’s new alignments seem suggest that it would never allow Afghanistan to become a stable peaceful country. Pakistan rulers are of the idea that America with all its forces couldn’t stop it from its intrigues and destructive interferences, now it is as weary as it could be how it can stop Taliban from overrunning Kabul with a limited number of troops?

Now it is clear that the American and Afghan policies, devised with American consultation, didn’t produce desirable results. Therefore, it is imperative that the current American and Afghan policies in the region must be revisited and news policies be devised accordingly which include: coping with the new arising situations in the region’s geopolitics, determining the priorities of the forces and aligning their elements as per their importance and interests, reducing the possibilities of  conflicting of interests among countries, marking the borders of competitive engagement for America, Russia and India to play their positive roles in the region’s stability, creating a conducive environment for positive forces to play their part for greater interests of international community.

It is high time for world powers in the region, especially America and Russia to adopt clear cut policies and relinquish their duplicity in dealing with Afghan security issue, as Ashraf government isn’t in a position to stabilize itself. Nevertheless, there are some possibilities of success in the store, but from Zahir Shah to Hamid Karzai all failed and couldn’t take the advantage of them.

However, Afghan state has to convince itself and its allies that Afghan crisis is inter-depended with other crises of the region. Instead of looking at Afghan crisis in isolation, they need to explore a holistic solution by interlinking all other crises together in the same context of peace. It is not only easy but also feasible. They only need a holistic approach and a pragmatic policy implementation.

Translated by Archen Baloch