Tag Archives: President Ashraf Ghani

Afghanistan’s Vice President Rashid Doctam’s wringing denunciation of the government, of which he is part and parcel, indicates the gathering political storm in Kabul. The looming crisis could pose a formidable challenge to Ashraf Ghani’s government whose constitutionality has come under a cloud.

Whether Afghanistan's First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum is convicted or not, there will be anger and accusations that the rule of law has been cheated.

As the Trump administration ponders raising troops level in Afghanistan to stabilize its security environment, one Pakistani analyst digs into the complex issues and conflicting interests of regional and international players in the war-torn country that remain continue to be part of Afghan problem.

Pakistan may not be doing enough to deny the Afghan Taliban a safe haven on its soil, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani must also appreciate the reality that trust is a two-way street. His intransigence has upset peace proponents.

Outsiders can only facilitate but find solutions to Afghanistan's internal problems. It rests in the hands of the Afghan leadership only. Upping the ante in the cover of blame-game - like the recent tensions- will neither serve Afghan peoples nor benefit the region.

By any metric, the three-pronged American campaign in Afghanistan — nation-building, fighting against the Taliban and curbing the illicit drug commerce — has not yielded tangible results. But the amount spent on the mission is simply staggering: $1 trillion and counting. The reconciliation drive is a track that has lamentably gone cold and deserves the best possible shot, argues one Pakistani analyst.

It appears that a lack of conversation has led to Afghan misgivings on the CPEC. Pakistan probably should have been formally more articulate about how it wanted to help extend the CPEC to Central Asia via Afghanistan. Despite statistically proven marked progress against non-state actors of all hues, Pakistan has yet to prove much more.

Being a pragmatic politician, the new head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council Pir Syed Ahmad Gilani is fully conscious of popular aspirations for stability in the country. Under no circumstance can he afford to allow a recurrence of tactical failures that often lead to strategic defeat.

Rather than blaming Pakistan for its every problem, Afghanistan needs to realize that its challenges originate from within the country.

Iran’s Chabahar port is challenging the significance of Pakistan’s Gwadar deep sea port. The project is strategically important particularly for India due to its land access to Afghanistan and Central Asia which is otherwise blocked by the territory of Pakistan.