Current Projects
Afghanistan: From Land Lock to Land Link
The railway running 85 km from Atamyrat, Turkmenistan to the Ymamnazar border crossing point and 3 km towards Afghanistan’s border facilities at Akina was officially opened by Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President Ashraf Ghani in a ceremony on November 28, 2016. Berdymukhamedov said: “the project is written in golden letters in the history of our brotherly nations.” He added that the terminal could hold up to 500 tons of commodities and could play a key role for oil traders. But if the link is completed, both Kyrgyzstan and China have expressed interest in connecting to the railway, which could have a powerful influence on a landlocked region that has little transport infrastructure. President Ashraf Ghani thanked Turkmenistan for its support in promoting stability in the country. He said Turkmenistan had given "the gift of trust in the future of Afghanistan". "In the past two years, the esteemed president of Turkmenistan decided to make investments of millions and billions of dollars in a stable Afghanistan,” He added, the opening of the railway is an important step in strengthening relations between the two nations, and in promoting regional economic co-operation in Asian countries. Initial discussions for the railway project began in 2008, and a framework agreement was signed when Afghanistan’s former President Hamid Karzai had visited Ashgabat in May 2011. As located in heart of Asian Countries, Afghanistan has indigenous capabilities for railway construction, and Turkmenistan agreed to take on responsibility for surveying, designing and constructing the entire route, with the section within Afghanistan to be considered as a donation to the country. Construction was launched by the presidents of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan with an elaborate ceremony in Atamyrat on June 05, 2013. The project weighed down with concerns about security in Afghanistan that prompted key backer the Asian Development Bank to suspend support for...
Taliban Facing Financial Crisis As Civilian Deaths Deter Donors
The Afghan Taliban are facing a cash crisis with donors unwilling to bankroll an insurgency whose victims are increasingly civilians rather than foreign troops, according to several members of the movement. Mullah Rahmatullah Kakazada, a senior diplomat under the Taliban regime, told the Guardian that the Taliban was in an increasingly precarious financial position despite chalking up several dramatic battlefield successes in the last year. “The war is becoming unpopular because of all the bad publicity on civilian casualties,” he said. “These people who give money don’t want to spend it on mines that kill children.” The Taliban have long collected donations from sympathisers around the region, including wealthy Afghan and Arab businessmen in the Gulf. But now the movement’s finances are so weakened that some of its most seriously injured fighters are no longer welcome at Pakistan’s private hospitals because they cannot settle their bills, according to Taliban sources. Kakazada said the departure of most foreign combat troops since 2014, and the outbreak of bloody infighting between rival Taliban groups, had weakened the legitimacy of a war the Taliban still portray as a struggle against “foreign occupation”. Although not a participant in the 15-year insurgency, Kakazada remains close to the movement’s leaders. His views echo those of active Taliban officials who spoke to the Guardian. One senior figure in the Taliban’s leadership said donations had first slumped after the announcement in July last year that the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, had died years previously. The death in a US drone attack of his successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, this year further damaged the movement’s fundraising efforts because Mansoor, a well-connected businessman, personally dealt with many of the donors. The Taliban’s other main source of funds, the taxing of economic activity in areas they control – especially the massive opium economy of southern Afghanistan – has also been...
Pak-Afghan Relations: Why Not?
Is the Pakistan-Afghan relationship hostage only to the motivated approaches of the political establishments and bureaucracies or does it also suffer because of our deficiencies? Most probably a combination of both Let us consider this; the Jinnah Hospital that is under construction in Kabul is a bitter comment on Pakistan's outdated Planning Commission; the ground breaking ceremony of this facility took place in 2007 and it is still way off completion. One of the reasons is local security conditions and non-cooperation by the Afghan authorities. They have been reluctant in exempting critical equipment being imported for installation at the hospital from customs duties. The same has been the case with the hardware for the Rehman Baba School and Hostel. Following a meeting with a Pakistani Track 11 delegation in mid-November chief executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah promised to take up this issue. The other major reason lies this side of the Durand line and relates to the involvement of several Pakistan government and army-related institutions. Petty audit objections by the ministry of finance , bloated bureaucratic egos, preference for institutional interests (instead of national image) and the pretext onega requirements continue to stonewall accelerated execution of these projects. Payments to the contractors of the Jinnah Hospital have been held up for over two years. We have not been able to complete a project in nearly a decade in a country that has become so critical to Pakistan's existence. The Kidney Hospital in Jalalabad is another example of bureaucratic egos and political motivations. Its physical structure was competed five years ago but it remains a ghost house. In another case, Pakistani authorities are waiting for the Afghan government security to complete a 25km stretch on the Torkham-Jalalabad highway, despite the fact that the Afghan government itself is hamstrung by security crisis in that region; instead of finding a way to hire private security out...
Communities’ Role Key for Crime Prevention, Crime Detection, and Law and Order Maintenance
The KP Police reforms have three main dimensions including reformation of ‘Thana Culture’, capacity building and community policing. Behavioral and attitudinal changes were crucial for reforming the ‘Thana Culture’ of KP Police. Six specialized schools are playing a key role in the capacity building of KP police. The trainings in these specialized schools are provided in a focused way where case studies are also used to meet the participants’ needs. The School of Intelligence has significantly improved the intelligence gathering and spot analysis skills of KP police and has thus addressed the issues hampering counter-terrorism and crime-control roles of police. The citizens who have interacted with the police after reforms so far have found visible changes and are all-praise for the reformation. These were the remarks made by participating police officials during a consultative meeting of working groups on police reforms in Charsadda. The meeting was a part of the project “Ulasi Police”, which is an awareness and advocacy campaign undertaken by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) – as part of USAID Small Grants and Ambassadors’ Fund Program – to strengthen the rule of law in KP province by promoting and disseminating the significant police reforms aimed at incorporating local communities’ policing needs and international human rights standards. The endeavor aims to tackle the trust deficit between the public and police, help KP police become an accountable and community-focused police force. Mr. Nazir Khan, DSP City, Charsadda said that the policing could be successful only if it was inclusive of the communities. With the services like Police Access Service (PAS) and Police Assistance Lines (PAL), the citizens can easily avail access to justice and seek help from the highest possible police authorities. Public Liaison Councils (PLCs) are also instrumental in building linkages between the public and police. He also said that the recruitment...
India and NATO: Partners in Arms?
Since the end of Cold War, India and NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) have been on trajectories that will likely converge in the not-too-distant future. Scholars and strategists, like Michael Rühle, Robert Helbig, M.K. Bhadrakumar, David Scott, and a few others argue for India and NATO to come out of their respective shells and openly partner to deal with issues of common interest and concern. This article looks into the present undercurrents relating to an India-NATO partnership, and argues that the process has already begun but needs to come out in the open. Recent Turnaround Events On March 22, 2016, U.S. Congressman George Holding, co-chair of the House India Caucus, introduced the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Partnership Act (HR 4825). The bill proposes to amend the Arms Export Control Action in order to formalize India’s position a major partner, on par with America’s NATO allies and closest partners. Holding told the House, “The legislation will cement the process that has already been made and will lay a foundation for future cooperation and growth.” The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is currently under consideration for being passed into a law. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. On May 20, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2017, which in principle has elevated U.S. defense ties with India. This bipartisan legislative move aims to bring India on par with NATO allies in terms of defense equipment sales and technology transfers. The two countries are now at an advanced stage of negotiation over the transfer of Predator combat drones, which India formally asked the United States for during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country in June this year. Moreover, Washington leaned on the other member countries of Missile Technology Control Regime to include India as its...
Opportunity for Afghan Peace
An interesting peace initiative for Afghanistan is in the making. If it clicks the new American administration could be more than happy to hand over this open ended conflict back to Russians or to the SCO and wash its hands off it. Taliban and Al-qaeda received much less attention from the president-elect during his campaign, even though he pledged to fight Daesh with all ‘Trumpish’ ferocity. Russia, China and Pakistan are contemplating a trilateral on Afghanistan in December. This will be another addition, but with a difference, to an already existing multitude of bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral and multilateral clusters ostensibly looking for peace in Afghanistan while ensuring, through their cross-purposed actions, that peace does not return to Afghanistan. The common fixture in existing arrangements is an over bearing American presence in all such entities. Anything that bears an American signature-tune doesn’t sell well amongst the leadership and the rank and file of Taliban—the real holders of politico-military power in Afghanistan. Although there have been indications that Trump is not in favour of peace talks with the Taliban, there is little other public information about Trump’s Afghanistan policy. Trump’s ignorance of the Taliban could feed the “deep state” in Afghanistan—the illicit parallel economy and security architecture run by warlords, drug-lords, and the Taliban. America’s leadership role in general, or its abdication of this role in particular, remains pivotal to mitigate, if not end, violent Afghan conflict. America is embroiled in plentiful foreign crises and Afghanistan is certainly not a high priority item. Trump’s America-first approach promised to withdraw the United States into Fortress America, build walls around it, both conceptual and real. This indicates a mindset of American policy for, at least, next four years. And if so, this fits well into the concept and opportunity of American disengagement from Afghanistan. Already, the...
WFP Afghanistan Situation Report #2
In Numbers: One million people are now on the move within Afghanistan. WFP aims to reach: 163,000 undocumented returnees (29% reached). 200,000 refugee returnees (support to begin in 2017). 150,000 internally displaced (45% reached). 35,000 refugees in Khost and Paktika (monthly caseload). Highlights: WFP has initiated SCOPE biometric registration at the Pakistan border, and at the office of the Department of Refugees and Repatriation in Jalalabad city. WFP has begun piloting cash support in preparation for a broader move to cash in early 2017. WFP has already provided cash support to 810 vulnerable displaced families (IDPs) in Herat, Helmand, Kabul and Jalalabad. mVAM has revealed that returnees in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, found that returnees had diverse sources of income. Besides casual labour, they reported being engaged in small-scale farming or kitchen gardening. Situation Update: WFP has launched SCOPE biometric data collection of returnees both at the border crossing and at the IOM transit centre in Torkham. SCOPE registration has just started at the office Department of Refugees and Repatriation in Jalalabad city, with the intention of expanding the registration points in areas with a high influx of returnees. A communications campaign will soon be launched so that beneficiaries know their entitlements, where to register for support, and to ensure that no-one is left behind. There are now one million people on the move in Afghanistan. UN OCHA has reported that over 485,500 Afghans have been displaced by conflict in 2016. For the first time, all 34 provinces in Afghanistan are hosting IDPs. See full report here. This article originally appeared on www.reliefweb.int, 28 November, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Pakistan, India and Politics of NSG
The last Vienna Plenary meeting of NSG ended without reaching any consensus on the issue of NSG candidature for non-NPT states. India was lately giving the impression that it has won the support of majority of the states including Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil, Russia and New Zealand. But the fact is that New Zealand doesn’t stand a chance against the US pressure. Similarly the countries in Latin American have different interest. However three major countries Ireland, China and Austria have not shown any change in their stance against the Indian membership. However, India wants to send the message out that NSG issue is still alive and India is diligently working for its membership. It’s almost a decade that membership of NSG has become much contested, especially because of India and Pakistan interest into NSG. Three dimensions to the whole issue are significant, First dimension is Commercial lobby; it is presumed that US Commercial purpose was main idea behind Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005 and later in 2008 when waiver was granted to India. Second is the politics of norms. If norms are main factor behind nuclear politics then Indo-US nuclear deal and NSG waiver should strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime. The third is the “geopolitical” perspective with strategic undertones. The ground realities illustrate that India’s politics and its membership of NSG has less to do with the economic or norms dimension and more influenced with geopolitics. The Indo-US deal on space technology existed since 2004 long before the Indo-US nuclear deal. Now it is believed that India will be able to enhance the sophistication of its missiles. Things further gained pace in 2010 and the idea was floated that India should be the member of all the cartels such as Australia Group, MTCR, NSG etc. By then the NSG waiver had already been granted to India. India now is the strategic partner of the US and enjoys more autonomy than other allies of the US. India is being mainstreamed by...
Finally, Afghanistan Is Trying to Penetrate and Purge High-Level Corruption
The courtroom was tense. The prosecutor’s team fiddled with its new equipment. The defendant, tall and imposing in the dock, fidgeted with his shirt cuffs. Then the lights were switched off and a video scene flashed on the wall. It showed a brief scuffle on a garden path outside a housing complex in the capital. Plainclothes detectives surrounded the defendant, who protested and pulled back sharply. The camera zoomed in on his hands and pockets, then shifted to the nearby bushes, where some crumpled currency bills lay. This was the “gotcha” moment in the first of two trials held in the new Anti-Corruption Justice Center this month, the opening salvo in the government’s ambitious, much-touted effort to penetrate and purge an entrenched system of high-level official corruption. The proceedings were held last Saturday in a makeshift courtroom, hastily converted from a cafeteria, deep inside a highsecurity police compound. There were U.N. and international police officials in the audience, taking notes and listening to simultaneous translation on earphones, and a bank of TV cameras filming at the back. The government’s case was meticulously prepared, a bribery sting with marked bills and tapped cellphones. The chief judge, who had granted the defense an extra week to prepare, read the defendant his rights. The young prosecutor, clad in a flimsy velvet robe with gold trim, recited a lengthy charge sheet. “We caught him red-handed . . . this was in flagrante delicto,” the prosecutor declared after the incriminating video was switched off. The defendant, Abdulhai Jurat, stood silently through most of the trial, but his attorney presented an energetic and detailed defense. He challenged the government’s right to monitor phone calls, charged that the video had been doctored and suggested that the crumpled bills in the garden had been planted there beforehand. “This case has been a conspiracy against my client,” he declared, stabbing the air dramatically. “I watched the...
85,000 Registered Refugee Families Returned to Afghanistan This Year
A total of 85,000 families totalling 380,045 registered Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan this year as part of the volunteer repatriation process of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an official said on Sunday. “This has been the highest number of volunteer returnees from Pakistan since 2006 due to various factors,” UNHCR spokesman Qaisar Khan Afridi told The News.He added that the repatriation process would be suspended for three months from December 1 to February 28, 2017 due to the winter season. The repatriation centres in Pakistan, two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Balochistan, will be closed till February and will only process those Afghan refugees who had registered themselves with these centres by the end of the current month.Since 2002, UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation programme has helped nearly 4.1 million Afghans to leave Pakistan. The repatriation process intensified in July this year, mostly due to the alleged harassment and arrest of Afghan refugees’ families in Pakistan. It intensified further when the UNHCR doubled the cash compensation amount from 200 dollars to 400 dollars per individual. In October this year, a total of 148,692 Afghan refugees returned home, mostly from the UNHCR’s Chamkani Centre in Peshawar. In January 2016, a total of 325 individuals had gone back to Afghanistan, while it increased to 67,059 in August as per the information available on the UNHCR official page. The official document reveals that majority of Afghan refugees had returned from the Peshawar district and had settled in Nangarhar province upon reaching Afghanistan in the current year. The UNHCR spokesman, Qaisar Afridi, said that tight management at the Torkham border between Pakistan and Afghanistan starting from June 1 led to the rise in repatriation of Afghan refugees, who now need valid passports and visas to enter Pakistan. The short extension in the validity of the Proof of Registration (PoR) cards also led to a rise in...
TOP STORIES
TESTIMONIALS
“
I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.