Heavy snow stirs Afghan peace

As heavy snow seizes Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan militancy tends to relent, brightening hopes for peace. This has have happened in the past over the last many years and is the case presently. But this is that additional context of the Afghan war's endgame scenario that rightly cheers up the Afghan mood and in return strengthens prospects for peace at last in the war-ravaged land of the Afghans. That the Taliban have won international approval to open its office in Qatar indeed adds to that positivism - not only as a put - paid to President Hamid Karzai who for far too long was in search of the Taliban's 'address'. Of course, the Taliban keep saying that opening of its office in the Gulf country doesn't mean that they have given up militancy against foreign military presence. But the fact remains that peace has its own dynamics and when its time comes it overwhelms its staunchest detractors. No surprise then the Taliban kept their cool over the disgusting online video showing US marines urinating over the bodies of its fighters, saying it won't derail peace. Afghans of all hues want peace and are prepared to have it, there should be no doubt. The problem is with the foreign occupants who nurture a different worldview, in that they would like to show that they are leaving Afghanistan but would like to be 'present' there at the same time. In fact, if there is any danger to the nascent peace process in Afghanistan it stems from the haughty arrogance excessively underlining the behaviour of the occupants' forces and their governments. For them, Afghanistan is no more a battlefield to defeat and vanquish the Taliban who they held guilty of hosting the al Qaeda leadership, but a staging post to 'contain' China and control energy-rich Central Asia. They want a long-term presence in Afghanistan, in terms of stationing forces, like the United States have in many other countries since the end of the Second World War. But there is a strong Afghan resistance to any such plans, though the present rulers in Kabul maintain duplicitous position. How other centres of Afghan power look at the American move - largely reflected from its text of a 'Strategic Agreement' with Kabul - one gets a feel from the recent interview of Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chief of Hezb-e-Islami, who too has admitted having secret contacts with the Americans. According to him, foreign forces should withdraw under a "reasonable timeframe acceptable to the Mujahideen", at first from the cities and populated areas, deploy troops at military bases and then leave Afghanistan, handing over security to the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. Meanwhile, the foreign troops shouldn't conduct military operations and night raids and stop arresting innocent people. The power should be handed over to an interim government acceptable to all sections of Afghan society and if such a set-up is not possible, then it should be given to the present government after changes to make it more acceptable. And as for the Strategic Agreement, Hekmatyar says that the present government in Kabul 'is not legitimate and cannot ink such an agreement'. Afghans are sovereign in their country and how and with whom the Afghans clinch a peace deal, Pakistan is not concerned. But where Pakistan does have concerns is when outside powers manoeuvre to get Trojan horse admission. We hope when the leaderships of the two meet, as is planned, Pakistan's concern as to the rationale of a foreign military presence, particularly of India which is also in the run, is entertained. How much relevant to Afghan peace is Pakistan, the failure of the Bonn Conference must be an eye-opener. That the US Special Envoy Marc Grossman has set out on another peace odyssey leaving Pakistan out of the loop, makes no sense. Pak-Afghan interdependence for regional peace is a reality; were it not so, Pakistan would not have suffered as much as it has in the aftermath of the Afghan imbroglio. Rightly then, the Afghan government is in touch with Islamabad as the two are about to resume talks primarily in order to pave the way for productive Taliban participation in the upcoming Afghan peace negotiations. The fundamental issue is a lasting peace in Afghanistan, that's Pakistan's immediate neighbour and durable peace is of prime interest to both - while for the United States and the rest of the coalition it may be just one more foreign expedition, just another diplomatic challenge and is on the front burner as long as a campaign for America's presidential election lasts. Copyright Business Recorder, 2012