Daily Times

Much has been made of how Pakistan holds the key to Afghan peace. And the time has come for this country’s leadership to play its part. Especially now that Kabul is not looking beyond this October’s general elections. For the bitter truth is that the regime is still not in control of the entire country. To date its writ extends to just 55 percent.

Thus the message given to visiting US diplomat Alice Wells ought to be this: ballot-boxing when entire swathes of land are held or contested by the Taliban will, in the long-term prove meaningless. Rather, a two-pronged approach is needed; one that does not de-link these two issues. And that goes beyond the progress made at Tashkent. Not least because this is hard to measure in tangible terms beyond international consensus supporting the Taliban peace package tabled by President Ghani back in February.

Yet two months on and the insurgents have shown no sign of playing ball. Quite the opposite, in fact. Voter registration kicked off just over a week ago and there have already been four attacks on centres providing this service; with twin strikes taking place on Sunday. The first targeted a Shia-populated area of western Kabul and killed 63; with ISIS claiming responsibility. The second hit the capital of the northern province of Baghlan, a city home to ethnic Tajiks, leaving six dead. Thus far no group has admitted ownership; though local security officials have pointed fingers at the Taliban.

All of which suggests that the first priority has to be establishing government writ throughout the country. For international law provides a nation state fulfil, among other conditions, a regime fully in control of its people and borders. Clearly, Afghanistan does not score well on either of these fronts. And nor will it as long as the US-NATO presence prolongs. For the Taliban does not recognise what it sees as yet another American-backed puppet regime operating under the framework of military occupation.

So, what is to be done?

This is where Pakistan needs to step in; and it must do so sincerely. It should present itself as an honest broker between Kabul and Washington on one side and the Taliban on the other. This must involve preparing for a US troop withdrawal and ending the drone programme. And in return, Islamabad will have to offer workable security guarantees, such as, expelling all undesirable militant networks from its territory. The UN, for its part, could oversee such de-militarisation. After all, under the stewardship of António Guterres, the world body is showing promising signs of rediscovering a little of its diplomatic muscle.

Bluntly put, the bombs-and-bullets experiment is a failed one. The same must be said of ballots as the sole currency of democratic capital. For what have been the dividends of this since 2004 — the first time the Afghans went to the polls since the fall of the Taliban? From where the citizenry of both sides of the border are standing, this is but a redundant question.

The people of Afghanistan should not be made to risk life and limb just to whitewash an ongoing foreign military occupation. For that is the way yet more bloodshed lies.  *

Published in Daily Times, April 24^th 2018.