EDITORIAL : THE OUTLOOK, AFGANISTAN

                

 

Dispel Concerns Instead of Expressing Concerns

While security situation continues to have a baneful look, failure to address rampant corruption is plunging the country into a more complicated situation. Unfortunately, the president and some high authorities can easily dodge the responsibility for the problems faced by the country by putting the blame on international organizations or international community.

When the president assumed his second tenure, he made many pledges and promises among which the fight against corruption stood out but unfortunately he has not been able to allay the concerns of Afghan people as well as international community over the widespread corruption. Last year, Kabul bank collapsed because of the mismanagement of the owners and shareholders. Now the Ministry of Finance has expressed concern that the aids of some of the donor organizations and countries channeled through International Monetary Fund (IMF) are in abeyance and this could affect the development programs in the country. The concerns come after the IMF put its assistance to Afghanistan in suspension until the Kabul Bank crisis is solved.

The crisis of Kabul bank emerged after reports said that it had lost hundreds of millions of dollars of the depositors. Abdul Qadir Fitrat, who resigned from his post as head of the central bank and now resides in the US, has said in the past that $910 million was illegally withdrawn from Kabul Bank in the form of undocumented loans to well-connected individuals. The bitter fact is this that this money was not invested in Afghanistan, which could have benefitted Afghan people, at least. Rather, it was transferred out of the country and spent on land deals that produced no benefits for the investors as well as for the people of Afghanistan.

The IMF was providing its assistance to Afghanistan through this Bank, which is now put for sale. IMF has also asked for transparent probe into the Kabul bank issue. But Afghan government has not been able to dispel the IMF concerns as yet and earlier the Minister of Finance stated that the negotiation between the government and IMF did not produce any results, accusing it of putting political pressure.
The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) has expressed its concerns about the suspension of the IMF aid, saying it could affect around 80 percent of Afghan rural population. It is high time to dispel the concerns instead of expressing concerns.

Achievements at Great Stake Now

When the constitutional law of Afghanistan was enacted, it conceived an immense success for the people of Afghanistan and the international community. It was anticipated that Afghanistan – from economic, social and political perspectives – will nurture having the law as the foremost principle leading it. The Afghan constitution is the first milestone of democracy in a country where democracy has always been pressed under the feet of non-democratic governments and rulers. The hope for peace and prosperity in a democratic way brought millions of Afghan refugees back to their country.

No doubt Afghanistan, with the support from international community, has had noteworthy progress in the last ten years – civil societies were formed, elections were conducted, millions of boy and girls have started attending schools, freedom of expression is like never before, human and women rights organizations are functioning and so on. But progress is always easy to achieve and hard to maintain. The progress Afghanistan has made seems at severe stake seeing the country's current situation.

Afghan government is failing to maintain the progress democracy has made. The foremost factor to let democracy nurture is strengthening the rule of law. Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to implementation of law is that the lawmakers are the law breakers. The current political and security situation are clear evidences that laws in Afghanistan, including its constitution have gone symbolic. If the highest office of government is involved in severe violation of law, one can easily judge the situation in other government offices.

We all know that the special court formed by president Karzai is against the country's law and so are its decisions. Despite that, our president is backing the court and seeks to impose its decision according to which 62 Independent Election Commission (IEC)-certified and seating MPs will be replaced by MPs announced winner by the illegal court or simply Karzai's court last week. This has certain messages for the people of Afghanistan who have been giving sacrifices for peace and prosperity of their country. The government is trying to keep the influence of a specific group of people in government, lead the country to further chaos and political instability, conceal its inability to controlling the deteriorating security condition and pave the way for Taliban so that they can, once again, rule the people.

This is How Repatriates are Welcomed

Friday's bomb attack by Taliban, killed 13 member of a family repatriating from Pakistan. The incident took place in Zabul province when the family was on their way to Nawor district of Ghazni. Is this how Afghan refugees are welcomed in Afghanistan when they return to their own homeland? Yes, it is very unfortunate and death follows everyone in this county.

A country where around 150,000 international troops and more than 250,000 national army and soldier are deployed and despite that security has gone worse with each passing day. Although lingering insecurity has hampered the process of Afghan repatriation, families still continue to come back hoping peace and prosperity have become better than the times when they were compelled to leave their homeland. But they regret coming back. Their trouble doubles due to lack of security, employment opportunities and government's lack of attention.

The highways connecting Afghan provinces have been constructed in the last nine years – thanks to international community. Except in central provinces, main highways in majority of other provinces have been paved. Although roads are constructed, travelling by land is extremely risky for Afghan people due to road side bombs (IEDs), other sorts of attacks by Taliban and presence of robbers. Indeed the Afghanistan roads have gone more dangerous than under Taliban and actually security of roads are more important and preferable for the people of Afghanistan than their construction. The soldiers in the military bases established on the main routes between provinces are limited to only a few kilometers around these bases. The Taliban, on the other hand, is free and therefore, plants bombs and attacks military and non-military caravans that use the highways in Afghanistan. Most of the time, in such attacks, civilians get killed.

According to military sources there have been significant developments against Taliban in southern province as they have been driven out of their hideouts. Not only these achievements are fragile but also Taliban has increased its presence and operations in center, north and other comparatively peaceful regions of Afghanistan. As the Taliban's acts of insurgency grow, hope for a prosperous Afghanistan keeps diminishing.