Category Archives: Afghanistan

Sorry Latifa, You are a Hazara

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She was thrilled since morning because she was going to Kabul City with her husband today for the honeymoon. Her husband, Nauroz had already told her to get all necessary stuff ready by 10pm.

Nearly a month ago, Latifa got married with Nauroz, his village mate. She just 22 years old, a young lady with full of dreams to enjoy the marriage life. It was pleasant morning in Lal-o-Sar Jangal, Ghor Province Afghanistan. She left her bed a bit early to start the day. She knew it was not a routine day. She couldn’t sleep properly as the honeymoon excitement kept her awake nearly all night. She hurriedly prepared breakfast for the family. Her blood was running fast in her veins. She seemed flying today—feeling over the moon. She wanted to finish all house chores as quick as possible and she also wanted to finish packing before the set time.

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Afghanistan: Run-off election or Horse-trading?

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Abdullah AshrafWith just over 82 percent of the results of the votes announced by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) last Thursday, no presidential candidate seems to be in a clear position to announce victory. According to IEC Dr Abdullah has secured 43.8 percent (2,564,284) votes and he is leading Dr Ashraf Ghani from 10.9 percent (636,131) votes.

Around 81-100 percent of the election results of 20 provinces have been counted and 20-39 percent election results of 13 provinces are yet to be announced including the 70 percent election results of the Ghazi province.  

Out of seven million ballots, 5,857,442 votes have been counted. 746 complaints ruled by Electoral Complaints Commission may likely affect closer to half a million votes. Dr Abdullah’s 80,000 votes from Herat City have been quarantined for suspected fraud and now nearly 17.5 percent of the votes are left to be announced which means no candidate seems likely win in the first round of the elections with simple majority votes — was predicted on the previous column on this newspaper on 5th of April 2014.

Many suggest that Dr Abdullah may likely bag around 45 percent of the votes, while his political rival Dr Ashraf Ghani will hopefully get about 35 percent of the total votes.

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Will Elections Bring Stability in Afghanistan or …?

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abdullah-ahmadzai-rassoul-electionThe people of Afghanistan will cast their ballots today. It’ll be the third elections since the fall of Taliban in 2001 but the first democratic transition, if the process goes peacefully and successfully. 

So far three strong presidential candidates Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Zalmai Rasoul have emerged on the political arena to replace the incumbent president Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred to get further extension after ruling more than 12 years in Afghanistan.

For the past few weeks all presidential candidates especially the prominent three took to the street, travelled nearly all over Afghanistan and tried their best to win the hearts of the masses. Today is the most important day for the people of Afghanistan who will not only decide the future of Afghanistan but also the whole region.  Therefore, all eyes are on Afghanistan’s elections. All presidential candidates claim to be the next president of Afghanistan but unfortunately nobody knows who will win the simple majority vote.

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Afghanistan’s Possible Political Scenario Beyond 2014

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Withdrawal

If we take a look the past two months Afghan politicians’ statements, we will easily get the real political picture of Afghanistan, which clearly shows a great deal of political rift and mistrust going between the Kabul government and the opposition leaders who represent non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan. The political strife rose to the extreme level, when the opposition leaders raised questions about the status of ongoing authoritative centralized government and demanded of Kabul government to bring political reforms in the country and further asked the government to incorporate them in the proposed talks with Taliban. Continue reading →

Durand Line: The Future Time Bomb

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derand_line

On November 12, 1893, King Abdur Rahman Khan and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (British Envoy) agreed on seven points known as Durand Line Agreement to demarcate the line between Afghanistan and British India approximately 2,640 kilometers long (presently much of Baluchistan, large parts of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Province and the whole of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas), to limit their respective influence and to avoid interfere beyond the frontier line. In order to protect India from the Russian invasion, Great Britain had to occupy Afghanistan in 1879 and established a government in Kabul to put a full stop to Russian expansion to the east. Continue reading →