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- Jan 5, 2012
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Comment: Afghan president strives to put house in order - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
Pakistan’s Army Chief, Gen Raheel Sharif’s visit to Kabul in February and his declaration that “Afghanistan’s enemy is Pakistan’s enemy” had rekindled hopes of a turnaround in Pak-Afghan relations haunted by decades of suspicion and hostility.
The hopes are fading -- and quickly. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recorded an eight per cent increase in civilian casualties in the first three months of the current year over the same period last year.
With the commencement of the so-called spring offensive and rising civilian and security forces casualties, Afghan political leaders and analysts wonder if Islamabad indeed has changed its policy and or is using its leverage to rein in the Afghan Taliban.
Gen Raheel, they say privately, during his meetings with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah had promised to deliver all shades of the Afghan Taliban resistance to the negotiating table as early as the first week of March.
President Ghani suggested four possible avenues for talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. These talks, it was suggested, could either be held in the UAE, Islamabad, Kabul or Beijing.
It has been more than a month since the promised talks were to take off. Instead, there is radio silence. The Afghan leadership is waiting and watching how the spring offensive unfolds.
As one senior figure in the Ashraf Ghani administration put it, “the President has put at stake his political future by taking a paradigm shift in relations with Pakistan. He has taken huge political risk at the expense of accusations at home of a sell-out to Pakistan”.
With rising civilian and security forces casualties and worsening security environment in much of the country, Mr Ghani is coming under growing pressure from the hawks.
So far, he has resisted publicly chastising Pakistan for what the Afghans perceive as reneging or backtracking on its pledges but the bonhomie and the good-neighbourly feelings between the two countries that has seen a surge in the past few months may not last long. Kabul may not wait very long
Pakistan’s Army Chief, Gen Raheel Sharif’s visit to Kabul in February and his declaration that “Afghanistan’s enemy is Pakistan’s enemy” had rekindled hopes of a turnaround in Pak-Afghan relations haunted by decades of suspicion and hostility.
The hopes are fading -- and quickly. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recorded an eight per cent increase in civilian casualties in the first three months of the current year over the same period last year.
With the commencement of the so-called spring offensive and rising civilian and security forces casualties, Afghan political leaders and analysts wonder if Islamabad indeed has changed its policy and or is using its leverage to rein in the Afghan Taliban.
Gen Raheel, they say privately, during his meetings with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah had promised to deliver all shades of the Afghan Taliban resistance to the negotiating table as early as the first week of March.
President Ghani suggested four possible avenues for talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. These talks, it was suggested, could either be held in the UAE, Islamabad, Kabul or Beijing.
It has been more than a month since the promised talks were to take off. Instead, there is radio silence. The Afghan leadership is waiting and watching how the spring offensive unfolds.
As one senior figure in the Ashraf Ghani administration put it, “the President has put at stake his political future by taking a paradigm shift in relations with Pakistan. He has taken huge political risk at the expense of accusations at home of a sell-out to Pakistan”.
With rising civilian and security forces casualties and worsening security environment in much of the country, Mr Ghani is coming under growing pressure from the hawks.
So far, he has resisted publicly chastising Pakistan for what the Afghans perceive as reneging or backtracking on its pledges but the bonhomie and the good-neighbourly feelings between the two countries that has seen a surge in the past few months may not last long. Kabul may not wait very long
