Current Projects
Afghan Leader Looks Forward to ‘Substantive Talks’
Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah has said that he looks forward to his upcoming visit to Pakistan where he expects to have substantive discussions on bilateral relations, including on the common threat of terrorism. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had extended an invitation to Dr Abdullah to visit Pakistan and the invitation was given again recently. Talking to the delegates of the unofficial Pak-Afghan dialogue, Abdullah on Wednesday said the invitation had been pending for some time and he was ready to leave for Pakistan but unfortunately he had to postpone due to an attack in which some of his staff members lost their lives. He said both the countries face serious challenges and it would be his endeavour to exchange views in an effort to come to grips with the current problems. “Terrorism is not only a threat to Pakistan and Afghanistan but for the whole region. In view of the current situation, Pakistan and Afghanistan are facing, there is a need for both the countries and the region to fight jointly against terrorism,” he said. The Afghan leader said that despite difficulties in the relationship of the two countries, it was important to take concrete steps upon which bilateral relations could be strengthened. In response to difficulties pointed out by Pakistan’s former ambassador Qazi Hamyun regarding Pakistani-funded projects, he directed his staff to form a review committee to remove restrictions and allowing customs exemption and duties for medical equipment for the completion of the projects. Dr Abdullah appreciated Pakistan’s development projects in Afghanistan and especially mentioned the Pakistan-funded Torkham-Jalababad road. He directed the Afghan officials to facilitate the expeditious completion of the Pakistani projects in Afghanistan. He also welcomed the Pakistan government’s instructions to provinces with regard to the Afghan refugees. “It will be important for us if the issue of documented and undocumented refugees is addressed...
Pakistan Among Top Five Countries Most Hit By Terrorism: Report
Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Syria is among the top five countries most hit by terrorism, a report said on Wednesday. According to the report, deaths from terrorism in OECD countries increased by 650 per cent last year despite a marked fall globally as Islamic State (IS)and Boko Haram militants suffered military defeats at home but committed more attacks abroad. The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) said worldwide there had been 29,376 deaths caused by terrorism in 2015, a drop of 10 per cent and the first fall in four years, as action against militants IS in Iraq and Boko Haram in Nigeria cut the numbers killed there by a third. However, the report said the groups had spread their actions to neighbouring states and regions, causing a huge increase in fatalities among OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) members, most of which are wealthy countries such as the United States and European nations. It said 21 of the 34 OECD member countries had witnessed at least one attack with most deaths occurring in Turkey and France where coordinated attacks by IS gunmen and suicide bombers at the Bataclan music venue, a soccer stadium and several cafes in Paris last November killed 130 people. Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Turkey all suffered their worst death tolls from terrorism in a single year since 2000, according to the index which is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) think-tank. In total, 23 countries registered their highest ever number of terrorism deaths. “While on the one hand the reduction in deaths is positive, the continued intensification of terrorism in some countries and its spread to new ones is a cause for serious concern and underscores the fluid nature of modern terrorist activity,” said Steve Killelea, the IEP’s executive chairman. “The attacks in the heartland of western democracies underscore the need for fast-paced and tailored responses to the evolution of these organisations.” The annual index...
South Asia Not on Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda, Says Expert
Dr Marvin G Weinbaum, an expert on Afghanistan and Pakistan, believes that South Asian region will not be on the priority list of the new US administration after president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January next year. “It might be the second or third priority unless something blows up,” Dr Weinbaum said on Tuesday during a roundtable discussion at the US embassy. A professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois, Dr Weinbaum served as an analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1999 to 2003. He is currently a scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. Dr Weinbaum disclosed that Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was not taken on board when Pakistan’s former interior minister Gen (retd) Naseerullah Babar first ‘adopted’ Taliban during Benazir Bhutto’s second term as prime minister in mid-90s. “He told me we can control them,” he quoted Gen Babar. When he later asked the former interior minister why he could not do so, he said because the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was ousted from power soon after. Soon after taking office Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed an MoU with Pakistan for intelligence sharing between the two countries which was a very significant move. It could have changed the situation had it been materialised but Ghani could not muster political support for it domestically. Dr Weinbaum said Taliban could not be reconciled as they do not believe in western democratic system. Signing of a peace deal between Afghan government and Gulbuddin Hikmatyar has complicated the matter. Animosity between Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai and incumbent Ghani is further exacerbating the situation in the war-ravaged country. “There is a lot of bad blood between Karzai and Ghani. Normally they [the Afghan government] convene Loya Jirga but they could not, fearing Karzai would take over. He...
China Stands with Pakistan For Safeguarding Its National Stability: Li Keqiang
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has sent his condolences to his Pakistani counterpart Muhammad Nawaz Sharif over a recent terrorist strike at Shah Noorani Shrine in Balochistan which caused heavy casualties. In the message, Li said that China strongly condemns the bloodshed and will, as always, firmly support the Pakistani government and people in their efforts in safeguarding national stability and fighting against terrorism. Li, on behalf of the Chinese government, also mourned the dead, and expressed his sincere condolences to the wounded and the families of the victims. A bomb exploded at Shah Noorani shrine in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan district on Saturday night, killing over 60 people and injuring more than 100 others. Chinese Navy's frigate Handan reaches Pakistan for bilateral exercises: The Chinese Navy's frigate Handan has docked at Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi to participate in bilateral joint drills in Pakistani waters. The frigate that belongs to the 24th Chinese Navy fleet convoy for the Gulf of Aden was warmly welcomed by the senior officials of Pakistan Navy, Chinese officials and diplomats at the Pakistan Navy Dockyard in Karachi. During its stay, Handan will take part in the joint drills with Pakistan Navy from Nov. 15 to 21, aiming at enhancing bilateral training level, promoting tactics exchanges and sharing experiences on anti-piracy. The exercises will include about a dozen tasks such as port leaving under threats, shooting and night time patrol surveillance. During a short meeting between the two sides, Commodore Zaka Ur Rehman of Pakistan Navy expressed his appreciation at the role that the Handan has played in the Gulf of Aden against piracy and said that "China is Pakistan's best friendly and brotherly country. We have arranged bilateral exercises, which hopefully will be very successful, useful and rewarding and will further strengthen our bilateral relations." For his part, Chi Qingtao, the chief officer of the...
Despite 15 years of occupation, Afghanistan’s opium production has only gone up
There was also a significant decline in poppy eradication in 2016. Provincial governors destroyed 355 hectares, or 877 acres, of poppy this year, a 91% decline from the 3,760 hectares, or 9,291 acres, eradicated last year. The 3,760 hectares eradicated in 2015 was a 40% increase over the previous year. Eradication efforts were hamstrung by logistical and financial issues, as well as by the country's worsening security situation. The Taliban is thought to control more of the country than at any point since the US invasion in the weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Farmers and others in some parts of the country also reportedly attacked eradication teams, preventing them from crop elimination in some areas. Southern Afghanistan, Helmand (or Hilmand) province in particular, continues to be a locus for opium-poppy cultivation. That region had 59% of the country's total cultivation, while Helmand was home to 80,273 hectares. The Southern and Western regions of Afghanistan were home to much of the country's opium-poppy production in 2016.UN Office on Drugs and Crime Helmand is a longtime Taliban stronghold and one of the country's most restive provinces — in October, after weeks of fighting, a Taliban offensive on the provincial capital had cut the city off and led to hundreds of deaths. The number of Afghanistan's 34 provinces that were free of opium poppies dropped from 14 last year to 13 this year, and every region except the southern one had an increase in opium production. A US Army soldier and a member of the Afghan Uniform Police arm wrestle prior to a joint patrol near Command Outpost AJK (short for Azim-Jan-Kariz, a nearby village) in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 28, 2013.REUTERS/Andrew Burton The Northern region saw a tremendous 324% increase, followed by the Northeastern at 55% and Eastern at 44%. Production in the Southern region was stable, declining 1%. Opium production has fallen from levels seen during the...
What Has President Ghani Done For Afghanistan?
In Afghanistan, disagreements among senior authorities have left people concerned about their present and future lives. Recent statements by Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum are stoking the flames as he accused the president and chief executive of nepotism, inability and taking liberties. The response of the president’s office to the accusations was retaliatory. This caused observers to comment on the verbal skirmish between powerful individuals in the country. The era of President Hamid Karzai has allowed small players to dominate the scene. For example, Mohammad Atta Noor, acting governor of Balkh, is considered a mission impossible for President Ashraf Ghani as despite his tremendous efforts, he wasn’t able to remove him from his position as acting governor. On the other hand, President Ashraf Ghani is seen by many as a stellar intellectual with a strong résumé who many observers commend for having done a tremendous amount for Afghanistan’s reconstruction since the fall of the Taliban. He has faced serious challenges and problems, a number of which were left behind by the previous government. He inherited corruption, a lack of governance, financial problems, a fragile political situation, social problems, the fragile pledges to fund the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANSDF) and the withdrawal of almost 150,000 international troops. The core factor of the leadership crisis Regarding differences in educational background, President Ashraf Ghani is described as an academic while his partner Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has spent his life on the battlefield. In addition, President Ghani has a national vision while the focus of his power-sharing partner is limited to his party “Jamyati Islami Afghanistan,” Nazar Council and to his ethnic Tajik community. In 2001, the Northern Alliance established by Ahmad Shah Masoud and Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dustom and Mohammad Mohaqiq, deputy chief executive of Afghanistan, joined the alliance to fight...
What Is Going On In Afghanistan And Why Is The US Still Involved?
Insurgents have threatened the major northern city of Kunduz twice since 2014, most recently a few weeks ago, and were only expelled with US support. Meanwhile, many other provincial capitals are in danger, including Lashkar Gah in Helmand and Tarinkot in Urozgan. How did we get here? In 2013 Taliban insurgents and the Afghan military (and its foreign allies) were at a stalemate. The Taliban saw it as a "wait-and-see" phase. "They knew that eventually, as President Obama had announced, all the foreign forces would leave Afghanistan, and then they would start a big push," Dawood Azami, the former BBC bureau chief in Kabul, told Rear Vision. "This is what we saw. When the foreign forces left Afghanistan, thousands of militants and Taliban insurgents poured in." The situation was further exacerbated in June 2014 when the Pakistani military cracked down on Taliban militants in nearby North Waziristan. Up to 5,000 militants crossed the border into Afghanistan to escape the Pakistani military, reinforcing the Taliban. US President Barack Obama had planned to withdraw from Afghanistan completely by 2014, but according to Anatol Lieven, a professor of international politics at Georgetown University, he was forced to back down on his plan after repeated warnings that it would cause the Afghan army and state to collapse. The NATO and US coalition had invested time and money training the Afghan military in preparation for the withdrawal, but much of the focus was on containing the Taliban in the south and east of the country. After international troops left the insurgency spread to other parts of Afghanistan and the military was not equipped to respond. Why is the Afghan military so weak? Professor Lieven argues that the Afghan armed forces are extremely corrupt and demoralised. "They know that the US will in the end bail them out, with air power, and so they don't see the need really to pull themselves together," he said. "I don't know any military expert who thinks that...
Afghanistan Fires 7 from Cabinet In Intensifying Political Crisis
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Parliament has dismissed seven government ministers over the past four days, adding to the woes of a fragile coalition that for months had bickered over filling the cabinet positions in the first place. The suddenly vacated cabinet positions, adding to two ministries already vacant because of resignations, will further bog down the work of a government that has struggled to get its house in order while also facing emboldened Taliban offensives and decreasing support across the country. The Afghan Parliament began hearings last week over what lawmakers said was the ministers’ inability to spend the national development budget. The dismissal of one minister on Tuesday brought the total to seven ministers dismissed out of 12 who had been called for hearings, including the ministers of foreign affairs, public works, information technology, labor and social work, education, higher education and transportation. Publicly, President Ashraf Ghani has challenged the legality of the hearings and asked the dismissed ministers to continue with their jobs until the country’s Supreme Court makes a final ruling. He also told ministers not to show up for the hearings, more of which are scheduled in the coming days. Parliament, which itself has been in a legal limbo since its term officially expired more than a year ago with no date set for elections, has refused the government’s pleas to stop the hearings. And Hajji Zahir Qadir, the deputy speaker of the Parliament, said on Tuesday that despite President Ghani’s claims, the ministers’ dismissal could not be reversed by the Supreme Court. “If the government is just fooling itself, that’s a separate issue,” Mr. Qadir said. But that is far from the only issue. Some analysts believe that a byzantine political intrigue may be underway: that the cabinet purge might have some degree of support from Mr. Ghani, despite his public protestations. Supporting that argument is that some of the dismissed...
Sharbat Case: From Across Border
For most Afghans Sharbat Gula symbolises the sufferings and hardships that this nation has gone through ever since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. The CIA-ISI-led insurgency then made global headlines then, with the Afghan mujahideen happily rubbing shoulders with the American-Pakistani trainers and mentors. They even went as far as the White House. But that is history. Now, both the Afghans and the Pakistanis are dealing with the consequences of that insurgency – commonly known as jihad. The popular narrative on Sharbat Gula is premised on victimhood and innocence. The common Afghan looks at this issue through the moral prism. All they know is that the lady was deported from Pakistan disgracefully to the disregard for her over three decades of residence there. Also, the commoners don’t know that Pakistan’s provincial and central governments did offer to prevent Gula’s deportation through an appeal to the court. They are also unaware that Gula had herself first challenged her deportation orders and withdrawn her petition as Pakistani authorities offered to help her stay on. Also, most Afghans appear to be in a state of denial over internal and domestic political motivations behind the high-profile treatment of cases such as that of Sharbat Gula. The dominant majority of Afghans possess Pakistani IDs, why are they not being arrested and deported, they ask? Smelling rat so to say. This particular case consumed quite a bit of time during a Track 11 Beyond Boundaries at Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan. When parliamentarians, journalists and foreign policy /security experts from both Pakistan and Afghanistan went into a huddle to discuss common challenges, Sharba Gula’s case topped the initial proceedings with regard to the treatment she got — 15 day detention for possession of a fake ID Card and the harassment of Afghans in Pakistan at the hands of the police and intelligence officials. Afghan delegates looked at the issue more from an...
NSG Still a Far Cry For India As China Insists On NPT Linkage
China on Monday obliquely criticised the India-Japan agreement on nuclear energy by pointing out that all countries are entitled to peaceful use of atomic energy, so long as they abide by “the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.” “With regard to nuclear agreement signed between India and Japan and on the use nuclear energy we believe that under the promise of absorbing international obligation of nuclear non- proliferation, all countries are entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang observed during his regular briefing. “At the same time, the relevant cooperation should be conducive to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,” he said. ‘NPT is the cornerstone’ China maintains that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which India has not signed, is the cornerstone of preventing the spread of atomic weapons. In a separate statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry commented on the November 11 meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Vienna, which discussed the, “Two-Step Intergovernmental Process to Address the Issue of Non-NPT States’ Participation.” The meeting follows India’s bid to become a full member of the 48-nation NSG. China has so far opposed India’s membership, citing the need for evolving a common criteria for all non-members of the NPT, which includes Pakistan. The Foreign Ministry statement said the Vienna meeting was held to discuss, “Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of Non-NPT States’ Participation in the NSG,” in accordance with the mandate adopted in June during the grouping’s meeting in Seoul. It added that the meeting held in the Austrian capital was a maiden attempt since the NSG’s inception in 1975, by the Group to formally take up non-NPT states’ participation “in an open and transparent manner.” India still out of consideration However, the statement reiterated China’s insistence on linking NSG membership...
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.