Afghanistan’s New Ambassador to Pakistan: Opportunity for Establishing Better Af-Pak Relations?

The National Unity Government of Afghanistan recently appointed a new ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The choice of President Ghani for this appointment is Dr. Hazrat-Omar Zakhilwal, Ex. Chief Economist and Ex. Minister of Finance.  In addition to being the Afghan Ambassador, Dr. Zakhilwal is titled to be the Afghan President’s special envoy in Pakistan.

Dr. Zakhilwal appointment for this important position says it outright that the new Afghan government values better economic and political ties with Pakistan.  To achieve this ambitious goal, Dr. Zakhilwal is better placed than any other Afghan politician.

Unlike other politicians in the previous Afghan administration, Zakhilwal has already established work-able relation with his Pakistani counterparts especially when he served as the Minister of Finance under Ex. President Karzai.  An example of the cooperation between the two countries has been Dr Zakhilwal's success in attracting cooperating response from Mr. Ishaq Dar, the Pakistani Minister for Treasury, to improve bilateral economic ties.  He succeeded in mobilizing the Pakistani government’s much needed political support for the important Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) 1300 Mega Watt electricity transmission project.  Under CASA, Afghanistan will receive a transit fee for the large amount of electricity transmitted to Pakistan for a transit fee.  This is a significant project that can promote regional integration and prosperity. 

Afghanistan’s President Ghani envisions precisely this sort of economic ties with Pakistan.  He believes that if the two countries are genuine in their relations, each can contribute significantly to the other’s economic development.  President Ghani would like to see a 100+ more CASAs between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  And for that to happen, Kabul needs a representative in Islamabad that can help create similar interest and thinking in Pakistan.  Dr. Zakhilwal, for his experience, is a good fit for this purpose.

Afghan Interest in Promoting Political Ties

President Ghani’s administration has also been trying to establish friendlier political relations with Pakistan.  Ever since coming to power in 2014, President Ghani sought support from Saudi Arabia and China, Pakistan’s geo-political allies and traveled directly to Pakistan to gather momentum for renewed trust and ties with Pakistan particularly in quelling the insurgency in Afghanistan. 

For a while the new efforts seemed working and hopes for better ties between the two countries were high.  However, due to the exposure of the surprising death of Mulla Omar, the Taliban Supreme Leader, and subsequent violence in Kabul, bilateral relations went sore and back to square one.  Since then, optimism for a different chapter in Af-Pak relations has seemed as distant as it did during the previous Afghan administration.  this is not in the interest of any of the two neighbors. 

Afghanistan has always expected Pakistan to value its relations with the democratically elected government in Kabul than other non-state groups, and to cooperatively support the war torn country’s reconstruction and development efforts.  Kabul feels this has not happened for a long time and despite numerous exhausting efforts from Kabul.

However, Dr. Zakhilwal’s appointment may be a turning point and an opportunity for generating a different response from Pakistan.  He has proven to already possess the required leadership, understanding of the context, and previous success in building trust with Pakistan.

Considering that years of instability, mistrust and violence in the Af-Pak region has had devastating geo-political and economic consequences for both the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two countries should seize this renewed opportunity and utilize on it to establish the momentum for a more peaceful, integrated and successful Af-Pak region.  That in turn will contribute to prosperity and security in Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond.

Will this happen, however, remains a big question to be answered in Islamabad.

Dealing with Poverty is Another Priority for the New Govt. in Kabul

With President Ashraf Ghani’s government finally taking hold in Kabul, it also needs to focus on dealing with Afghanistan real socioeconomic problem: poverty.

Poverty has been a serious issue in Afghan society; a larger number of Afghans live either in poverty or are at risk of falling into poverty if there was a crisis. This is the case despite Afghanistan having ample natural resources. According to the World Bank, poverty rate in Afghanistan is at staggering 38 percent. This figure has remained unchanged since 2008 despite a large sum of development aid injected to its economy.

The crippling poverty has vicious impact on Afghanistan. It has been a leading contributor to violence, political instability and radicalization especially in the rural parts of the country where majority of the Afghan people live. In the rural areas, the Afghans especially the youth live in dismal poverty having minimum access to inadequate education or employment opportunities. Such circumstances flourish ripe conditions for poverty to prosper causing further grievances in Afghan society.

Poverty has ruled Afghan society for too long now and it continues to cause troubles due to the nonexistence of a strong political will both in the previous Afghan leadership and within the international development partners active in Afghanistan, non existences of a cohesive human development plan and an effective strategy to fight poverty or focus on effective and inclusive economic development.

Now that President Ashraf Ghani is in charge and has a wealth of both experience and education in poverty eradication and human development programs, his government should prioritize eradicating poverty and related serious underdevelopment problem in Afghanistan.

This is no easy task but it is possible if there is a sincere political will to eliminate corruption, boost human capital and capacity, attract investment, use international development aid more effectively, better utilize Afghanistan's natural resources, foster trade and create a conducive environment for the private sector development. All of these efforts can contribute to better public and private sectors that can provide jobs and in turn alleviate poverty in Afghanistan.

President Ghani’s unity government should have and implement that political will and enable Afghans to break from the vicious cycle of poverty & violence and instead live in prosperity. If President Ghani can do this, he would be remembered as the savior for a country that has been stuck in vicious poverty for too long now.

Charlie Hebdo Reveals Failure in Understanding Values

The armed attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris was an act of violence that does not have any justification in human’s civilization anymore.  Those carrying out the attack meant to infuse a vicious circle of hatred and divide, and may have succeeded in doing so.  However, as common citizens of this world we need to avoid pointing fingers and instead unite as the one human race against this vicious aim. 

Violence is not a response to such acts, especially if those targeted are innocent civilians.  If this happens, it perfectly serves intention of those that want to instill hatred.  A more responsible response would be to identify the cause of such incidents and unite together to confront it.   

The unfortunate incidents in Paris, however, outlined two important lessons that all need to learn:

First is for the liberal western world where freedom of speech and the press are hard earned values.  While every human-being has a right to express their views, this freedom, even in humor, should responsibly encourage respect, unity, understanding and trust among the entire public, not otherwise.  Freedom of speech could be more effective if it is address resolving social issues such grievance, inequality and discrimination. 

Second is for the Muslim world that constantly faces incidents of offensive media messages regarding their faith.  Such messages or drawings are usually produced by non-Muslims who have limited understanding of their Abrahamic religion.  The response to such messages or drawings cannot and must not be violence.  Islam does not allow that.  Instead the Muslim world should respond to such incidents with care, respect and tolerance.  

They could be much more effective if they start educating and show to the non-muslim world that their religion is peace and that it is the same as that of Prophet Abraham, who built the Kabba in Mecca.  And that Muslims recite five times in their prayers every day that “Oh God! bless us Muslims as you have blessed Abraham and his sons.”  Also, that it is our faith not to depict the prophet or God for it can lead to worship of human made idolatry, forbidden in Islam.

If all sides learn these lessons and put more effort into building their understanding of each others values, we may be able to unite against violence and live in a peaceful and just world, otherwise, even cartoons can incite violence, fear and divide.