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The Brussels Conference on Afghanistan (2016)
On 5 October, the European Union and the government of Afghanistan co-hosted the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan. This conference brought together 75 countries and 26 international organisations and agencies. President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah represented Afghanistan while President of the European Council Donald Tusk represented the European Union. Participants endorsed the ambitious reform agenda presented by the Afghan government. They undertook to ensure continued international political and financial support for Afghanistan over the next four years. The total sum committed by the international community is US$15.2 billion (+/- €13.6 billion). The EU and its member states committed to US$5.6 billion (+/- €5 billion). This is an exceptional level of funding which ensures that Afghanistan will remain on a firm path to political and economic stability, state-building and development. The regional stakeholders and the international community also reaffirmed their commitment to a political process towards lasting peace and reconciliation. The opening session of the conference included speeches by President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The Afghan government then presented its reform programme in support of strong Afghan-led state and institution building over the next four years. Statements by participants were delivered to the Conference. The morning session was chaired by EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Salahuddin Rabbani. The afternoon session was chaired by the Afghan Minister of Finance Eklil Hakimi and the European Commissioner for Development Cooperation Neven Mimica. Two representatives of Afghan civil society also addressed the conference, recalling that ultimate accountability is to the Afghan people. The Conference was concluded with closing...
Businessmen Demand End to Excessive Taxation
Provinces should proactively and vigorously collect taxes and the burden should shift from the captive tax-payers like the salaried class, Mr. Naveed Qamar, parliamentary leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the National Assembly, spoke at the maiden public-private dialogue organized by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) as part of its endeavor – in partnership with Center for International Private Enterprise - to foster dialogue for economic reforms by convening high level policy discussions between the business community and political leadership. The series of dialogue fora aims to provide platform to the private sector to discuss with political representatives the economic issues and challenges hampering the economic growth, and solutions and framework for economic reforms. The discourse is hoped to generate critical feedback for the economic manifestos of participating political parties. Mr. Naveed Qamar while speaking on the occasion underlined a forward looking thought and not an "accountant-thought" for improving the tax collection in the country. He said the myth that agriculture is not taxed needs to be debated because this is the fault of provincial governments to collect taxes. Dr. Vaqar Ahmed Deputy Executive Director at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), while giving presentation on the Tax Reforms in Pakistan, said that due to the vast number of exemptions, concessions and preferential treatment allowed to select sub-sectors under agriculture, industry and services, it was difficult to collect taxes. “After the 18th constitutional amendment, GST on services (GSTS) is now a provincial subject. The necessary measures required to collect the due GSTS will now depend on the political will and administrative capacity of each of the provinces. And then there is weak audit and enforcement capacity”, he quoted the other difficulties in tax collection. “Taxes should not merely be seen as means to run the government...
Pakistan's Afghan refugees: A timeline
Pakistan officially hosts the third largest refugee population in the world after Jordan and Turkey, sheltering some 1.4 million registered Afghans and, according to estimates, up to a million more residing without documentation. Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for Afghan refugees who arrived from the 1980s onwards to return to their home country, but fears are growing that the latest cut-off — March 2017 — will be final. Here is a timeline of key events. 1979 The exodus of Afghan refugees begins in late 1979 when Soviet troops invade Afghanistan to shore up the unsteady communist government and install their own president. “I arrived in 1979, I lived my whole life here…. I am returning but my heart is crying, I am depressed,” Abdul Rab, a 46-year-old political activist originally from Jalalabad but who settled in Pakistan’s Peshawar, told AFP. By the end of 1979 there are already 400,000 refugees in Pakistan according to the UNHCR. Foreign powers including the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China meanwhile support the resistance mujahideen as the country plunges into a 10-year war that claims hundreds of thousands of lives. “Our lives were in danger, we had no option but to flee,” Inamullah Khan, a grocery shop owner in Peshawar told AFP, adding that he lost many family members to the fight against the Russians. The UNHCR estimates a total of 3.1 million flee to Pakistan over the course of the war and a similar number to Iran. 1989 Following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, Afghanistan’s mujahideen turn on each other in the struggle for power. Fighting breaks out between the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Gulbuddin Hekmetyar’s Hezb-i-Islami. 1992 Massoud’s forces enter Kabul in 1992 heralding the start of a new civil war. In 1994, Mullah Muhammad Omar founds the Taliban movement who enter the fray, seizing power two years later. 1999 Despite the upheavals, a UNHCR report in 1999 found that...
Pakistan’s Afghan refugees: A timeline
Pakistan officially hosts the third largest refugee population in the world after Jordan and Turkey, sheltering some 1.4 million registered Afghans and, according to estimates, up to a million more residing without documentation. Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for Afghan refugees who arrived from the 1980s onwards to return to their home country, but fears are growing that the latest cut-off — March 2017 — will be final. Here is a timeline of key events. 1979 The exodus of Afghan refugees begins in late 1979 when Soviet troops invade Afghanistan to shore up the unsteady communist government and install their own president. “I arrived in 1979, I lived my whole life here…. I am returning but my heart is crying, I am depressed,” Abdul Rab, a 46-year-old political activist originally from Jalalabad but who settled in Pakistan’s Peshawar, told AFP. By the end of 1979 there are already 400,000 refugees in Pakistan according to the UNHCR. Foreign powers including the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China meanwhile support the resistance mujahideen as the country plunges into a 10-year war that claims hundreds of thousands of lives. “Our lives were in danger, we had no option but to flee,” Inamullah Khan, a grocery shop owner in Peshawar told AFP, adding that he lost many family members to the fight against the Russians. The UNHCR estimates a total of 3.1 million flee to Pakistan over the course of the war and a similar number to Iran. 1989 Following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, Afghanistan’s mujahideen turn on each other in the struggle for power. Fighting breaks out between the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Gulbuddin Hekmetyar’s Hezb-i-Islami. 1992 Massoud’s forces enter Kabul in 1992 heralding the start of a new civil war. In 1994, Mullah Muhammad Omar founds the Taliban movement who enter the fray, seizing power two years later. 1999 Despite the upheavals, a UNHCR report in 1999 found that...
Pakistan an Exemplary Host To Afghan Refugees, Says UNHCR Rep
More than 200,000 Afghan refugees have been repatriated from Pakistan this year, the UN High Commissioner said on Tuesday. Nearly half of those Afghan men, women and children left in the month of September alone, the highest number since the US toppled the Taliban in 2002. The outflow of refugees returning to the war-torn country comes after the government tightened its border controls in June and began cracking down on undocumented Afghans. The vast majority — more than 185,000 — returned after July, with nearly 98,000 crossing the border in September alone, UNHCR spokesman Qaisar Khan Afridi told AFP. “From January until today, the number of refugees voluntarily repatriating to Afghanistan has crossed the figure of 200,000,” Afridi said. More and more appear to be going every day, with officials saying that the first four days of October saw up to 5,000 returnees daily. An Amnesty International report on Tuesday said Pakistan hosted 1.6 million refugees, making it the third largest refugee hosting nation in the world. But UNHCR said the figure, based on its own data, was already out of date and should be revised to 1.4 million after the movement since July. The agency also estimates that a further one million undocumented refugees are in Pakistan. Meanwhile, UNHCR Representative in Pakistan Indrika Ratwatte said that Pakistan and Iran have been exemplary host of Afghan refugees for the last 37 years. In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said that at a time when many countries were closing doors on refugees Iran and Pakistan were still hosting millions of Afghan refugees and the hospitality was commendable. Ratwatte said that there were three UNHCR refugee repatriation centres in Pakistan; two in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one in Balochistan (almost near Afghanistan border) and these days, almost 5,000 Afghan refugees were leaving Pakistan for their homeland ‘per day’. “According to International Organisation of Migrants so far 160,000 undocumented Afghan have...
Pakistan Wants Peace in Afghanistan to Bring Stability In Region: Envoy
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Syed Abrar Hussain said on Sunday that Pakistan wants lasting peace in Afghanistan to bring stability in the region. In an interview, the envoy said that Pakistan wants to strengthen the cooperative and good neighbourly relations with Afghanistan based on the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Hussain, while responding to the statement of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said Pakistan and Afghanistan are two brotherly countries. He said Pakistan is spending millions of dollars on welfare projects in Afghanistan in education, health and infrastructure. “Pakistan is establishing an engineering university in Balkh, a school in Kabul, a 200-bed hospital in Helmand, kidney center in Jalalabad and a hospital in Lugar,” Hussain said adding that 3,000 Afghan students have been granted scholarships and around 7,000 Afghan students are studying in Pakistan besides 0.5 million children of Afghan refugees. This article originally appeared on www.newspakistan.tv. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Karzai Reluctant to Endorse Pakistan as ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’
The former Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared reluctant to endorse the move to label Pakistan as ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ as he considered the goodwill of Pakistani people towards the Afghan people. In an exclusive with Times Now TV, Karzai emphasized on the role of the Pakistani people for hosting millions of Afghan refugees as he was asked if he would support to label Pakistan as ‘State Sponsors of Pakistan’. The former Afghan President said ‘Well, see Pakistan is not only the Pakistani government or the Pakistan military establishment. Pakistan is also the people of Pakistan and nearly 200 million people of Pakistan who are victims of terrorism as much as Afghanistan is India is. So, I wish the people of Pakistan will and I would never want to use a word or an action that would in any manner that would reduce the peace prosperity and the dignity of people of Pakistan.” Karzai further added “But in regard to the establishment of Pakistan and as regard to the military we should do all we can and to bring them to recognizing that there is a different way in behaving with neigbors and that way is a civilized and peaceful relation.” This comes as two powerful American lawmakers introduced an act in the US House of Representatives late last month to designate Pakistan a State Sponsor of terrorism. Congressman Ted Poe, who is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, said “It is time we stopped paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism.” The act, Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation’ (HR 6069) has been introduced by Republican Poe along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of the Democratic Party, who is Ranking member of this influential Congressional Committee on terrorism. Poe further added “Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the US for years.” “From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network,...
Kabul Wins Aid Pledges at Brussels Talks
World powers pledged billions of dollars for war-ravaged Afghanistan until 2020 at talks in Brussels on Wednesday amid fresh calls for the Taliban to make peace 15 years after they were driven from power. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met officials from more than 70 countries and international groups, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, at the conference. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced that the 28-nation bloc would pledge 1.2 billion euros ($1.5bn) a year and said, “I would expect similar levels of engagement from our partners.” She said there would not be “any donor fatigue on Afghanistan”. Pakistan will provide $500m to Afghanistan for economic development projects, says Aziz Ms Mogherini said that a dinner of key regional players, including China, India and Pakistan, on Tuesday night had “found common ground” for the Afghan peace process. “The European Union will try to facilitate this as much as possible in the coming months.” Pakistan announced a fresh pledge of $500 million for economic development projects in Afghanistan. Addressing the conference, Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz underlined the importance of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. He said the fresh pledge was in addition to the $500m existing package under which projects in infrastructure, education and health were nearing completion. He pointed out that 3,000 scholarships had been provided to Afghan students for higher education in Pakistan and after completion of this programme Pakistan would provide another 3,000 scholarships in areas of medicine, engineering, banking and other fields to help Afghanistan’s institution building. Mr Kerry urged the Taliban to follow the example of Afghan warlord Gulbadin Hekmatyar and make an “honourable” peace with the Kabul government to end years of violence. Mr Hekmatyar, who heads the Hezb-i-Islami group and was a key figure in Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s,...
UN: Afghan Opium Production Increases As Eradication Collapses
Opium production in Afghanistan increased this year to one of the highest levels on record as efforts to eradicate the crop in a country that provides much of the world's heroin collapsed, the United Nations said Wednesday. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports annually on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, and is due to give its yearly update toward the end of this month. "Unfortunately, preliminary results suggest that illicit cultivation has increased well above 200,000 hectares [494,000 acres]," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery to an international conference on Afghanistan in Brussels. That would make it one of the top three years since the UNODC began providing estimates in 1994, according to previous reports by the Vienna-based agency. The greatest area recorded to date was 224,000 hectares in 2014. "The production of opiates is expected to follow the same upward trend,” Fedotov said. "Eradication has been close to zero." Eradication rose 40 percent in 2015, to 3,760 hectares, according to the last UNODC annual opium survey for the country. Fedotov did not give a reason for the increase in production, but his agency's 2015 report said there is a "high correlation" between a poor security situation and poppy cultivation, and the government in Kabul is facing a resurgent Taliban 15 years after U.S. forces helped oust the militants. Taliban successes on the battlefield have exposed the defensive limits of Afghanistan's NATO-trained armed forces, which are supposed to number 350,000 personnel but which have been heavily depleted by casualties and desertion. "Clearly we cannot afford to see international community engagement in Afghanistan weaken," Fedotov told the conference, at which world powers raised $15 billion to fund the country over the next four years. This article originally appeared on www.voanews.com, October 05, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views...
Pakistan’s Near-Abroad
We are so near in so many ways – sharing history, geographical proximity, faith, culture, commercial and family relations for centuries. Such favourable foundations, however, have not been converted by us into close friendly relations with the Central Asian States for our mutual benefit. Even as Europe and the US have been pivoting towards Asia, and as the centre of gravity of the world economy is shifting there, several countries – including Asian nations – have been positioning themselves in this resource-rich region through economic, political and security arrangements. It was Russian strategists who coined the term ‘near-abroad’ after the fall of the Soviet Union to emphasise their closeness with Central Asian and other republics of the former USSR, even as they became separate, sovereign and independent states. And China has rapidly built a range of economic relations spanning trade, energy and transport and communication networks including the ‘One Road, One Belt’ strategy, increasing connectivity with Central Asia and onwards through Iran and Turkey into Europe. And here we are in Asia and even strategically situated as a gateway to Central Asia, but stuck in the one-track westward outlook left behind by colonial rulers at the time of independence; we cannot seem to find our way forward into this resource rich heartland of Asia. It is important to remember that Pakistan was among the first countries visited by the leadership of the newly independent Central Asian countries in 1992 soon after USSR was dissolved in 1991. This was an exceptionally unique opportunity that had opened up after 200 years of Tsarist Russia and USSR rule over these lands. It was fortunate for Pakistan to have been so chosen but unfortunate that it was hostage to a system of governance that lacked the vision to see the promise and potential opened up by this opportunity of the century. It did not invest time and energy into building networks of close cooperation and earn goodwill and...
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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.