Pak-Afghan strategic accord

[mosu]

This is with reference to the press conference by President Hamid Karzai (on Oct 4) in which he put forward conditions for signing a strategic pact with Pakistan. Afghanistan has already signed two strategic pacts; one with India – an Indo-Afghan strategic pact in October 2011 that besides other things permits India to boost the military training of the Afghan army; the second with US in May 2012 that binds US to provide security to Afghanistan by maintaining military presence in Afghanistan till 2024.

Both the above strategic agreements signed with the external powers (one regional and the other a world power) by Mr Karazai had no conditions attached to them. So much so that even the concern of the neighboring countries(Afghanistan is a landlocked country with seven neighboring States) were not viewed/considered before signing these pacts/agreements. For President Karazai to attach conditions for signing a strategic agreement with Pakistan is far fetched and away from reality.

The reality is that Pakistan and the Central Asian States (under the influence of Russia) are not likely to permit US to base war-fighting assets on their territories. A fact that US understands and is noticeable with the attempts US is making to approach Afghanistan’s neighboring Central Asian States. US will have to rely either on airfields farther away in the Persian Gulf states or on American aircraft carriers operating in the Arabian Sea.Combat basing of Predators and strike aircraft’s to manage the security of post 2014 Afghanistan is the most critical component of Washington’s strategy to continue with its counter terrorism policy in the region. When the US troops pull out of Mr Karazai’s country the only country most suitable to guarantee and implement Afghan security plan will be Pakistan.Therefore to attach conditions before agreeing on a ‘strategic security pact’ is not only undermining the interests of both the countries but also the future of over 2 billion people who live in them. Mr Karazai should best know that it is not by signing a ‘security strategic pact’ that that the two countries will become strategic allies, it is rather by mutually understanding each other’s interests and also not undermining these interests by taking actions that go against them.

Mr Karazai will do well to reconsider and review the future security paradigm of Afghanistan as a State that seems to rely heavily on the securitystrategic pacts that Mr Karazai has signed with the external powers. Implementing these security plans behind the back of Pakistan and by sidelining its neighbors will be extremely difficult and non beneficial.These strategic pacts and their likely fallout already had a significant impact on the balance of power in the region. The arrival of Russian FM in Pakistan and the presence of Pakistan’s COAS in Russia are all very key political drives to counter balance the fallout’s of Mr Karazai’s wishful strategic pacts signed without considering their impact on the region. Afghanistan is not the victim ofsecurity failures but also the failure of governance.Majority of Afghans have demonstrated their will to lead a peaceful and orderly life but Mr Karazai has not been able to give them this. It is here that the failures of the Karzai government have been most obvious. If indeed there is a single factor accounting for the growth of the insurgency, it is not the presence of foreign troops but rather the failures of governance associated with the presidency of Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai has been unable to provide ordinary Afghans with personal security and improved economic conditions, despite the vast resources that have poured into Afghanistan over the past decades. The future threat to Afghanistan is mostly from within. Befriending Pakistan rather then considering it as the likely destination of emerging threats and binding Afghanistan’s future in a solid strategic relationship with Pakistan is the best option for Mr Karazai to follow.

Infiltration from Afghanistan in Pakistan

INTERIOR Minister Rehman Malik has done well by raising the issue of infiltration from Afghanistan in Pakistan and called upon the United States to stop it as it was causing unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. The Interior Minister further stated that he has presented verbal evidence to US officials about such infiltrations and stressed that the US troops on borders must check the activities of anti Pakistan militants.

In fact there have been numerous incidents when militants who had been forced out of Swat and Malakand and taken shelter in the neighbouring areas of Afghanistan had launched attacks on Pakistani check posts killing a significant number of security personnel. There are reports that Maulvi Fazlullah and his militants are being hosted by the Afghan and NATO forces and provided all the financial and material support to carry out their anti Pakistan activities. In addition several militants training camps exist in Afghanistan where members of the so called Balochistan liberation army are being kept and sent into Balochistan for subversive acts. While the US continue to pressurise Pakistan to stop cross border movement, it was essential thatIslamabad should also raise its concerns about the activities of anti Pakistan elements in Afghanistan where the US is having control. Nothing can go on in Afghanistan for an indefinite period of time without the knowledge and support of CIA and US military. Since Pakistan is an ally in the war on terror and suffered the most in terms of human and financial losses, we support the demand of the Interior Minister and hope that the Americans would pay attention and address the grievances.