Pakistani News

The current Afghan government is not representative of anyone except Americans. Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah are two personalities that are widely viewed by Afghans and the rest of the world as the face of American occupation and the previous Afghan elections did not gain any legitimacy in the eyes of Afghan people mainly because only those candidates who were cleared by US and NATO were allowed to participate in elections. The rest were declared as terrorists and barred from participating in elections.


If Americans continue to insist on Talibans joining the current government under Karzai and following the constitution drafted by them, they will continue to waste time till they reach a point where their economy starts tanking and the currency crashes and they will no longer be able to pay the bills for the logistics and the salaries of soldiers fighting over there.

Any viable political solution has to bring the real representatives of the Afghans from different sections of the Afghan society. Given the facts on the ground, it seems increasingly likely that Talibans will be the dominant player in the future Afghan setup after US and NATO forces depart.

US and NATO should negotiate directly with Talibans and instead of proposing any unrealistic ideas, they should put together a realistic approach to end the war and guarantee that Afghanistan does not become a threat to any other country in future.


Some key points that can be negotiated with Talibans may include:

1. Talibans get the right to establish their government but give a fair representation to all ethnic communities including the Uzbeks and Tajiks.
2. Talibans must guarantee that they will de-associate themselves completely from Al-Qaeeda and will not allow Al-Qaeeda or any other militant group or organization to operate out of Afghanistan or plan attack on any other country.
3. Talibans must guarantee that they will not become a threat, specifically to the neighboring countries including Iran and Pakistan. This means they will not provide any kind of moral, logistic or military support to any militant organization operating inside Pakistan including TTP. Furthermore, a fair share of power will be given to the shia community and their organizations like Hizb-e-Wehdat will not be dismantled as long as they continue to operate peacefully under the rule of future Afghan government.
4. As a compensation for the 150,000 Afghan civilians killed in this decade long war, the future Afghan government will establish a trust and the US and NATO countries will provide funds to compensate the families of the Afghan civilians who were killed by their soldiers. This may sound very unrealistic but this may be a way for US to end the hostilities with Afghans and ensure a lasting peace deal with this nation.