Karzai comes to town

Few Pakistanis understand Karzai's lure to this country's executive that activated our prime minister to troop down to the airport to receive him with his entire cabinet. The protocol accorded to the Afghan President in Pakistan rivaled the protocol accorded to Vladimir Putin of Russia on a recent visit to India - a country, which has been as engaged in shoring up India's economic development and military strength since independence in 1947 as China with respect to Pakistan.
Is not Karzai the same man who, in spite of being provided sanctuary in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of his country, leaves no international fora without accusing Pakistan of one malfeasance or another? Karzai's response to a question raised by the Pakistani media, not by the Pakistan government, about the return of the 2 million Afghan refugees in this country, of which he was one at one time, was to dismiss it out of hand by saying it is not practical at this time for them to return to Afghanistan.
And isn't Karzai the same man who rejected Pakistan's offer on his recent trip to train the Afghan military? In this context, it maybe recalled that General Kayani recently stated that "I cannot afford to have Afghan soldiers on my western borders trained by the Indians and with an Indian mindset." Apparently, the General's concerns have once again been dismissed in diplomatic parlance: "my minister of defence will study this proposal and we will come back on this."
And isn't Karzai the same man who stated that India was a close friend of Afghanistan and parroted the old Indian line: give poof of Indian complicity in terror attacks on Pakistani soil and then Afghanistan will take action? If Pakistan had irrefutable proof, one would imagine that it would be presented to the US military rather than Afghanistan. In this context, however, one would lay the blame on our government officials, including the Interior Minister, who have been long on accusations and short on proof.
Karzai's Pakistani critics, (and they do abound in spite of the fact that the Zardari government accords him a protocol over and above what is given to heads of state/government of countries that support Pakistan to meet its economic/military needs) challenge his relevance to Pakistan on four counts.
First, Karzai's political credentials within his country are suspect and charges against him include manipulation of the recent elections as well as of being a US stooge. His Afghan critics have gone so far as to state that without the US military presence in Kabul Karzai would be unable to extend his control even on his country's capital.
Second, massive and sustained corruption as well as irregularities, attributed to his administration, have resulted in billions of dollars worth of foreign assistance not being translated into improved living conditions for his people - a fact that has led to periodic riots as well as in strengthening the recruitment drive by the Taliban.
Third, Karzai is accused of allowing Indian presence in all major cities, a presence that, so it is alleged, is being used to further destabilise Pakistan by India, our arch enemy.
And finally in terms of Pakistan-Afghanistan economic partnership, the benefits accrue more to Afghanistan than Pakistan. This is evident in all areas of economic activity be it legal or illegal that include the following: Pakistan allows its port to be used to download goods meant for Afghanistan without the payment of duty, but unfortunately several of these items find their way back into the more lucrative Pakistani markets. There is no doubt that Pakistan's legitimate trade with Afghanistan is not significant as compared to our total trade. In contrast, Pakistan absorbed 15.8 percent of Afghan exports and was the source of 25.5 percent of Afghan imports in 2007-08. Statistics for flourishing smuggling activity across the Pak Afghan border cannot be laid at the doorstep of the Afghan government, but of ours for allowing price differential to erupt due to domestic subsidies of essential items like wheat, which consequently led to increase in smuggling. The complicity of our border guards in smuggling can be sourced to poor salaries. However, it is pertinent to note that the US would not stop from using Pakistani soil to transport goods to its command in Kabul based on anything Karzai may say. To date, Pakistan is resisting Afghan demand to allow India to use our roads to export to Afghanistan - a resistance that one hopes remains in place, otherwise the danger of Indian goods flooding our markets even more than what is evident due to smuggling would have consequences for our economy; besides regional foreign trade must be premised on the principle of reciprocity. It is also relevant to note that the United States brokered talks on the Pak Afghan transit trade agreement and put pressure on Pakistan to open Wagah border to allow Indian goods passage through Pakistan to Afghanistan. Pakistani officialdom has denied that they have conceded this point.
Pakistan has extended monetary assistance to Afghanistan, a country with even a worse track record of mismanagement and corruption than ours. But so has India and, according to Karzai on his recent visit, around 1.3 billion dollars have been injected by the Indians into Afghanistan.
So why was Karzai feted to the extent he was by our government? Some analysts argue that the reason may be what our executive mistakenly perceives as a US wish/command - mistaken because the Obama administration has been at pains to publicly scold Karzai, a scolding that caused a serious rift between the US Special Representative for Afghanistan-Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and Karzai leading to the former bypassing Kabul during his subsequent visits to the region.
The first annual report compiled by the State Department under Obama notes that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has a "poor" human rights record, tarnished by widespread impunity for security forces who commit abuses; violence against women; torture and extra-judicial killings." It added that "The country's human rights record remained poor," and Afghan police, being trained by Nato countries - to speed a US troop withdrawal - enjoyed "pervasive" impunity for abuses ranging from extorting bribes from citizens trying to avoid jail to sexual violence against boys at police checkpoints." In addition, Karzai's move to gain control of the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, by appointing its members, was also noted with chagrin.
So why did our executive go over board welcoming Karzai? The visit, supporters of the government argue, reaffirmed the two countries resolve to fight terrorism in the region. Karzai stated that "without co-operation from Pakistan there could be no stability. We are fighting against terrorism. I have brought message of love from people of Afghanistan to the people of Pakistan." With our Chief of Army Staff concerned about Indian mindset within the Afghan army, and ongoing co-operation with the US and its allies engaged in military operations in Afghanistan one wonders if Karzai can indeed deliver on this subject.
The only commitment made by Karzai during his recent visit was his unequivocal promise to look into Pakistani prisoners in Kabul - prisoners, who are not within his jurisdiction to release in any case.