Current Projects

North Waziristan: What happened after militants lost the battle?

For over a decade the inaccessible and mountainous tribal area of North Waziristan was home to a swirling array of violent jihadists. The Pakistan and Afghan Taliban movements, al-Qaeda and less well-known militant outfits such as the Haqqani Network used the area to hold hostages, train militants, store weapons and deploy suicide bombers to attack targets in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today the militants have gone. Virtually the whole of North Waziristan is in Pakistani army hands. The army believes the defeat of the militants was one of the most successful anti-jihadist campaigns the world has yet seen. In two years of fighting the army lost 872 men and believes it killed over 2,000 militants. "Before 2014 North Waziristan was a hub of terrorist activities," said General Hassan Azhar Hayat, who commands 30,000 men in North Waziristan. After the army moved in "those who resisted were fought in these areas… the complete agency was cleared". But many militants managed to escape, slipping across the border to eastern Afghanistan to fight another day. Many are now operating there with impunity, some helping the Afghan Taliban in its battle against the government in Kabul while others attack targets in Pakistan. The latest group to establish itself in the area is Islamic State, although the degree of control exercised by Iraq-based Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over his supporters in Afghanistan is unclear. When the jihadists fled North Waziristan they left behind the apparatus that had helped keep their movement in power. Pakistani army officers today jokingly refer to one village, that was home to many senior militant commanders, as the Taliban's Pentagon, and they describe another where militants were trained as the Taliban Sandhurst. As they moved across North Waziristan, the army found prisons, a media centre hidden under a mosque, bomb-proof tunnels and a huge roadside bomb factory. With hundreds of bags of fertiliser and large blue plastic vats filled with foaming...

The Situation in Afghanistan and its Implications for International Peace and Security – Report of the Secretary General (March, 2017)

The present report provides an update on the activities of the United Nations in Afghanistan, including significant humanitarian, development and human rights efforts and was submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/11 and Security Council resolution 2274 (2016), in which the Secretary-General is requested to report every three months on developments in Afghanistan. It also provides a summary of key political and security developments and regional and international events relating to Afghanistan. The annex to the report contains an assessment of progress made towards the achievement of benchmarks and indicators in accordance with Security Council resolution 1868 (2009). Relevant Developments The Government continued to face significant political, economic and security challenges. The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, and the Chief Executive, Abdullah Abdullah, continued to engage in bilateral discussions to improve their working relationship. An investigation into the role of the First Vice-President, Abdul Rashid Dostum, in the alleged illegal detention and abuse of a former Governor of Jowzjan Province was launched. Several key government positions remain vacant. The newly formed electoral management bodies took initial steps towards implementing electoral reforms and preparing for future elections. The Government also continued to advance its anti-corruption agenda. In parallel, the implementation of the peace agreement with Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin advanced, including the lifting of sanctions against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but there was no discernible progress on peace talks between the Government and the Taliban. There was an increase in multilateral engagement at the regional level. The security situation continued to worsen, with armed clashes between security forces and the Taliban reaching a record high in 2016 and continuing at that pace in 2017. High levels of violence against civilians continued to be recorded as a result, with a...

Over 55,000 Afghans, Pakistanis return home in two days

Over 32,000 Afghans and 2,700 Pakistanis crossed into their respective countries via the Torkham and Chaman crossing points on Wednesday — the last day of reopening of the border with Afghanistan. In two days, over 51,000 Afghans and 4,900 Pakistanis returned to their respective countries after the Pakistan government reopened the border crossings on Tuesday. At Torkham, the Frontier Corps in collaboration with the political administration made elaborate security and immigration arrangements in order to facilitate swift and speedy return of Afghans and also to avoid the Tuesday-like situation when the frustrated people broke security barriers and crushed to death an Afghan woman in their desperation to cross the border. Female FC personnel were also deputed at the border to help guide returning Afghan women and their children. Male personnel were also deployed at a number of locations to regulate the process of immigration of returning Afghans. According to officials, 11,500 Afghans crossed the border on Wednesday and 12,539 on Tuesday. About 700 Pakistanis returned home in two days. Taxis taking the Afghan nationals to the Torkham border were stopped at three points to avoid rush and traffic congestion. Rules about legal travel documents for the returning Afghans were also relaxed and they were allowed to go back even by showing their national identity cards. Same rules were also applied for Pakistanis who got stuck on the Afghan side after the closure of the border on Feb 17. Taxi owners, who had lost their business to the nearly three weeks of border closure, had a field day on Tuesday and Wednesday as they ferried thousands of Afghans from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas to the Torkham border. The Afghans waiting in long queues at the Torkham crossing expressed mixed feelings about reopening of the border and their return journey. Amanullah of Jalalabad said that though he was happy to go back home after 18 days of painful wait, the...

Women’s Day – Meaningless for Afghan Women

The 8th of March was celebrated as International Women’s Day across the world, but does it matter for Afghan women? The rights of women have been a controversial issue and Afghan women left several regimes behind, including the Taliban’s regime. The political ups and downs throughout the history involved women’s rights and liberty and the patriarchal system left them at the mercy of injustice. They suffered indescribable pains and anguish. Their rights have been violated and their freedoms were curtailed in one way or another. Moreover, Afghan women have been the victim of traditional cultures. Their rights were restricted within the closed frame of traditions being practiced mainly in tribal belts. In other words, the parochial mindsets regarding women played highly negative role across the country through engendering hatred and misogyny. Women’s role was tailored to men’s desires. They were deemed inferior creature and had to be all ears to their spouses’ orders. After all, stereotypes abounded in our literature and our culture concerning women and continue up to now. The Taliban’s regime treated women as a pariah and trampled upon their rights and liberty. It is believed that Afghan women bore the brunt of violence during that regime. Women were not allowed to attend schools or go to bazaar without chaperone. They were flagellated in public places in case of eloping with their favorite men. Their social and political role was denied. With the establishment of democracy in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, Afghan women were entitled to engage in social, cultural and political activities, including being candidate for presidency and provincial council. Constitutionally, “the citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law.” In the meantime, “liberty and human dignity are inviolable. The state shall respect and protect liberty as well as human dignity.” The current Constitution of Afghanistan, which was approved in 2004, is the most...

CPEC Enclaves

A small line in a news story a few days ago caught my eye. The setting was a hearing in the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development at which high officials from the Planning Commission were answering questions about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The line that caused me to do a double take was this one: “The committee was informed that only Chinese industrialists would be allowed to set up their industries in the proposed economic zones along the corridor.” Surely this was a mistake, I thought, so I called some people, including members of the committee, to ask whether this had indeed been said. They confirmed that, yes, the officials from the Planning Commission had indeed said this. So what’s going on? Under the CPEC umbrella, there are nine Special Economic Zones planned. One each in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad, two in Sindh and one each in Fata, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Going by the CPEC website, work does not appear to have begun on any of them yet. The relative size of each is also not disclosed, nor are there any details about the special infrastructure requirements for each. The website claims that these are Chinese-financed projects, though it doesn’t tell us what the terms are, whether the financing is concessional or on commercial terms. We also don’t know how the energy and water requirements of these zones will be met. Will there be new transmission and distribution lines, grid stations for electricity, gas pipelines and compressors, water pipelines, and if so, where will the water be sourced from? If gas will be supplied from the grid, what will be the merit order placement of these industries in the gas load curtailment plan? Or will they be required to import their own LNG, in which case what third-party access rules will apply for the transport of that gas from the regasification terminal to the economic zone? We know nothing about the security arrangements inside the zones, and if...

Victims of Narratives

The narratives in Kabul and Islamabad refuse to change; Afghan officials insist Tehreek-e- Taliban Afghanistan (TTA) militants remain ensconced in Pakistani havens in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere. They insist the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, many in Kuchlak (Balochistan) that belong to JUI-F clerics continue to serve as support centres to the TTA militants including those from the Haqqani Network. They believe the TTA offers the bedrock of social support to all shades of terrorists including the TTP, Jamaatul Ahrar, ETIM, IMU, Chechens and Daesh. At the Munich security conference in February, President Ashraf Ghani spoke of some 20 terrorist groups currently operating out of Afghanistan. Masoom Stankzai, the head of the mighty National Directorate of Security, talks of some 30 terror groups based in the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They cannot flourish if they are not tolerated. If there is a will to counter them, how can they operate, he asks, implying that Afghanistan’s enemies operate out of Pakistan? The Afghanistan Times editorial on February 19, for instance, laid in to “Pakistan’s complicity snakes.” “In Afghanistan we are fighting insurgents, while in Pakistan they (militants) are using the country’s passports, airports, hospitals and the army toilets,” wrote the paper. The editorial a day earlier accused Pakistan of backing terrorists that are killing its own people. Such arguments amount to turning logic on its head because they imply that the Pakistani establishment is paying terror groups to blow up Pakistani people and security forces and it is exporting terrorism to Afghanistan. Notwithstanding Pakistan’s baggage of involvement — together with the US and Saudi Arabia — with Afghan mujahideen including Ustad Sayyaf, Prof Rabbani, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Hekmetyar, Haji Qadeer, Mr Karzai — and then support to the Taliban under Mullah Omar, the current Afghan discourse also overlooks the intricacies of geo-politics that...

Afghan Ambassador Dr. Omar Zakhiwal’s remarks at the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization Summit

Dateline: March 01, 2017. Islamabad, Pakistan. Mr. Chair, the Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan Honorable Secretary General Excellencies Heads of States Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen It is a distinct pleasure for me and my delegation to represent our leadership and our country at the 13thSummit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) here in Islamabad. I would like to express my gratitude and sincere appreciation to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the excellent organization of this Summit and the warm hospitality extended to us. Let me also take this opportunity and congratulate H.E Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, for a successful completion of his tenure as ECO's Chairman and H.E Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, for his election as the Chairperson of ECO. I trust H.E’s wise leadership will lead ECO to new heights. On behalf of Afghanistan, I assure our full support and cooperation. I also take this opportunity and thank the ECO Secretary General and his team for their hard work, preparing the required documents and proposals that have facilitated helpful discussion among the member states. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to all leaders who expressed here today their strong support to peace, stability and development in my war-devastated country. Honorable Chair, The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is one of the oldest and most important regional forums, covering unique geo-strategic location that could link Europe to China, and Russia and Central Asia to South Asia and the Middle East. ECO’s core objectives to achieve collective economic prosperity and sustainable economic growth for all through regional connectivity and economic cooperation fall within Afghanistan’s regional policies and endeavors. The Heart of Asia (the Istanbul Process) and RECCA are two Afghan-led initiatives, which are aimed to enhance regional...

Afghan Ambassador Dr. Omar Zakhiwal's remarks at the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization Summit

Dateline: March 01, 2017. Islamabad, Pakistan. Mr. Chair, the Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan Honorable Secretary General Excellencies Heads of States Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen It is a distinct pleasure for me and my delegation to represent our leadership and our country at the 13thSummit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) here in Islamabad. I would like to express my gratitude and sincere appreciation to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the excellent organization of this Summit and the warm hospitality extended to us. Let me also take this opportunity and congratulate H.E Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, for a successful completion of his tenure as ECO's Chairman and H.E Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, for his election as the Chairperson of ECO. I trust H.E’s wise leadership will lead ECO to new heights. On behalf of Afghanistan, I assure our full support and cooperation. I also take this opportunity and thank the ECO Secretary General and his team for their hard work, preparing the required documents and proposals that have facilitated helpful discussion among the member states. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to all leaders who expressed here today their strong support to peace, stability and development in my war-devastated country. Honorable Chair, The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is one of the oldest and most important regional forums, covering unique geo-strategic location that could link Europe to China, and Russia and Central Asia to South Asia and the Middle East. ECO’s core objectives to achieve collective economic prosperity and sustainable economic growth for all through regional connectivity and economic cooperation fall within Afghanistan’s regional policies and endeavors. The Heart of Asia (the Istanbul Process) and RECCA are two Afghan-led initiatives, which are aimed to enhance regional...

Afghanistan’s Conflict Displacement Tracker (Feb 25 – Mar 04, 2017)

The total number of individuals displaced by conflict in 2016 has risen slightly from last week to 652,594 as joint teams finalise assessments of those displaced last year. Northern/North Eastern: On 1 March, NSAG temporarily captured the Tala-wa-Barfak district administrative center in Baghlan, which was later recaptured by government forces on 3 March. No displacements were reported yet. Fighting also continued in Kunduz and Faryab, with reports of 2,800 unverified individuals displaced from Shirintagab district in Faryab to the district centre. Assessments will be challenging given the ongoing insecurity in the area. Eastern: While no further cross-border shelling or artillery fire was recorded in Nangarhar last week, resumed shelling in Kunar reportedly impacted some residential areas. Early reports indicate up to 1,100 individuals have been displaced in Kunar from the shelling, with assessments to commence shortly. Intensified government clearance operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Pakistan also continued, with further displacements expected. Central: In Kapisa, conflict in Tagab district continued to cause displacement. Armed clashes were reported in Shikari Valley, an area covering three districts of Bamyan. No humanitarian impact has yet been reported, however the fighting could result in increased conflict in neighboring areas of Baghlan and Parwan provinces. Western: Armed clashes occurred in Farah, Hirat and Badghis, with Farah recording increasingly intense confrontations between NSAG and government forces. During the reporting period, 491 IDPs were verified in Hirat from surrounding provinces; 171 IDPs were verified in Ghor from districts north of the provincial capital Chaghcharan; and 408 IDPs were verified in Farah city from surrounding districts. Southern: As the weather improves, the intensity of the fighting across the southern region has increased week on week. Frequent frontline clashes and airstrikes were reported, particularly...

Afghanistan's Conflict Displacement Tracker (Feb 25 – Mar 04, 2017)

The total number of individuals displaced by conflict in 2016 has risen slightly from last week to 652,594 as joint teams finalise assessments of those displaced last year. Northern/North Eastern: On 1 March, NSAG temporarily captured the Tala-wa-Barfak district administrative center in Baghlan, which was later recaptured by government forces on 3 March. No displacements were reported yet. Fighting also continued in Kunduz and Faryab, with reports of 2,800 unverified individuals displaced from Shirintagab district in Faryab to the district centre. Assessments will be challenging given the ongoing insecurity in the area. Eastern: While no further cross-border shelling or artillery fire was recorded in Nangarhar last week, resumed shelling in Kunar reportedly impacted some residential areas. Early reports indicate up to 1,100 individuals have been displaced in Kunar from the shelling, with assessments to commence shortly. Intensified government clearance operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Pakistan also continued, with further displacements expected. Central: In Kapisa, conflict in Tagab district continued to cause displacement. Armed clashes were reported in Shikari Valley, an area covering three districts of Bamyan. No humanitarian impact has yet been reported, however the fighting could result in increased conflict in neighboring areas of Baghlan and Parwan provinces. Western: Armed clashes occurred in Farah, Hirat and Badghis, with Farah recording increasingly intense confrontations between NSAG and government forces. During the reporting period, 491 IDPs were verified in Hirat from surrounding provinces; 171 IDPs were verified in Ghor from districts north of the provincial capital Chaghcharan; and 408 IDPs were verified in Farah city from surrounding districts. Southern: As the weather improves, the intensity of the fighting across the southern region has increased week on week. Frequent frontline clashes and airstrikes were reported, particularly...