Kabul’s fake friend
Furzana Shaheen

THE biggest challenge to the Afghan security is the foreign meddling in Afghan domestic affairs. Despite making a pledge of non-interference so often, one of the regional actors India is looking out to destabilize Afghanistan and missing no opportunity to malign Pakistan from Afghan soil. Indian activities were somewhat curtailed during the Taliban regime because they had no room to accommodate India. So, she got focused on supporting their nemesis, the Northern Alliance. The fall of Taliban in 2001 was seen by India as a golden opportunity to enhance the operations in Afghanistan manifold.
RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), the Indian intelligence agency rejuvenating its old bondage with the Northern Alliance and extending its tentacles to areas close to Pakistan’s borders. The Northern Alliance as a quid pro quo fully collaborated with India in order to damage Pakistan’s interests within and outside Afghanistan. Northern Alliance dominated Afghan Government has provided Indians with an unlimited and unprecedented access to the levers of power in Afghanistan. India on her part has been quick footed to translate this influence into forging strong political, military, and economic relations with Afghanistan. India which shares no borders with Afghanistan leaves no stone unturned to promote her influence by supporting forces hostile to Pakistan and raking up anti Pakistan perceptions and sentiments in Afghanistan.
India currently has an extensive diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. The Indian diplomatic missions serve as launching pads for undertaking covert operations against Pakistan from Afghan territory. India is gradually increasing the number of its paramilitary personnel in Afghanistan. She is stationing them on the pretext of providing security and protection to the Border Roads Organization and her consulates. From a few personnel, the strength of Indian troops has reached almost that of a company size force and also includes’ highly trained commandoes.
Recently RAW has deployed 12 agents in the garb of doctors close to Pak-Afghan border running free medical camps. The head of Afghan’s eastern military command and the commander of Nangarhar Province Hazrat Ali has given his house to these agents on rent and the Indian diplomats in Jalalabad are said to be in close—contact with him. The terrorist warlord Hazrat Ali has become the blue-eyed of Indian RAW and he is also given the responsibility of providing security to these Indian doctors. RAW is recruiting these agents to fulfill its nefarious designs in Pakistan. In view of unnecessary increase in Indian diplomatic missions in areas bordering Pakistan, the artificial hype and desperate efforts shown by India in Afghanistan’s reconstruction is an alarming situation because Indian activities have less to do with humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and more with RAW.
Indian consulates are printing false Pakistani currency, using it to recruit poverty-stricken Afghans to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism on Pakistani territory. A senior official in Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that, “Pakistan very much wants a stable Afghanistan, because they are next to us, and any instability up there will leak into Pakistan but as for the Indians, we told Afghanistan that the only purpose of opening those consulates is cross-border terrorism into Pakistan”.
The setting up of Indian consulates near the Pak-Afghan border serve no interests of the Afghan people, their presence is only for the devious aims of misleading the people to create instability in Pakistan. India is creating mischief in order to keep the bowl of turmoil boiling. She is using Afghanistan as the launching base for a ‘proxy war’. She is constantly abetting and promoting activities inimical to Pakistan. The irony is that the international community is well aware of the Indian subversive activities but is keeping silent over these acts of terrorism.
The cooperation between RAW and Afghan intelligence agency RAM (Riyast-i-Amniyat-i-Milli) is unprecedented. With the blessings of Afghan Government, a sizeable number of Afghan intelligence personnel have been provided to assist the RAW. These personnel remain on the payroll of RAW and ate therefore true in displaying their loyalty towards their master. The Afghan Police, the Border Security force, and Customs officials facilitate the visit of Indian diplomatic staff and intelligence’ agents to border areas and help them to hold meetings with dissatisfied pro-Afghan dissidents and anti-Pakistan elements from the tribal areas. These meetings are arranged by RAM at the behest of those RAW officials who serve in different diplomatic offices of India in Afghanistan. These tribal elders are playing in the hands of RAW masterminds and toe the Indian line as they receive financial support from India.
India is sponsoring and facilitating the terrorism in Afghanistan. She has set up a network of “terrorist training camps” located inside Afghanistan, including one at the Afghan military base of Qushila Jadid, North of Kabul; near Gereshk in Southern Helmand Province; in the Panjshir valley, northeast of Kabul; and at Khahak and Hassan Killies in Western Nimroz Province. The terrorist operators in Afghanistan, who mainly consist of RAW agents, are working on India’s heinous designs to brainwash, prepare, and send suicide bombers to Pakistan’s territory. RAW is working round the clock near Pak-Afghan border to facilitate the terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
India has launched a propaganda campaign to malign Pakistan for Taliban activities in Afghanistan. Her ultimate aim is to ignite the tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. RAW’s espionage doctrine is based on the principle of defaming Pakistan. Islamabad’s friendly ties with Kabul is a cornerstone of her foreign policy’s conduct but the Indian diplomats are working assiduously to poison Pak-Afghan relations. They have infiltrated NGOs, development schemes, education, health sector, and almost every Afghan organization with the aim of spreading anti Pakistan propaganda.
Pakistan has formally handed over evidences of RAW’s involvement into affairs of FATA and Balochistan to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and demanded that RAW’s anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan be contained. But Indian tirade against Pakistan continues unabated. RAW has crafted covert operations in Pakistan to coerce, destabilize, and subvert them in consonance with the foreign policy objectives of the Indian Government. Her aim is not only to distort Pakistan’s image but to use all available resources in connivance with the Afghan intelligence to damage Pakistan’s security and integrity. But it would be in the interests of India to rescind its disruptive activities inside Pakistan from
Afghan soil.
The dire need of the hour is that Kabul should open her eyes arid instead of becoming a henchman in the ‘Indian game, work towards strengthening the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan which would lead to the path of progress, peace, and stability in the region. It is high time for Afghanistan to understand and identify between a fake friend and fake enemy before it is too late.




The experience of a first time voter
Uzma Nomani

7:45 a.m. Monday February 18, 2008: My mother wakes me up; I refuse to move. My father calls me then he warns me that they would leave me behind. My mother tells me, “fine, you go alone later.” I drag myself out of my bed. I do not even get going to work this early! 8:20 a.m.: Two Model Police men stand in the middle of the road along one side of which is a sunken children’s park and on the other side is a Federal Government School—-our polling station. We park our car adjacent to the children’s park but a little away from the school building, just a little scared of bomb blasts. We get off and find our neighbour approaching us. She greets us and reminds us to stamp on Sher. We exchange greetings and my father responses, ‘canvassing not allowed,’ we cross the blue gate of the school.
A policeman stands by the entrance podium of the building and authoritatively but politely directs my father to the left for men’s polling booth and tells me and my mother to go straight inside and turn left. We climb a few steps and enter into the building. To our immediate left is a room which the plate on top of the door lintel tells is the assembly hall. A computer printout in Urdu says it is the office of the election commission. The school is built on levels; we climb down some ten steps or so. To the right of the door draped with a clean white sheet is the desk of Presiding Officer (PO). We approach the Assistant Presiding Officer (APO) marked on two desks where the white ballot boxes/containers with green lids, one on each desk, stand proudly on the corners of the desks as if nailing them down. My mother tells the household number (gharana number) to APO and she browses through the voters’ list and immediately locates it. Very quick, indeed! With a 6-inch scale she draws a line over her name and details to mark them off the voters’ list. I admire the carefulness of the Election Commission for using a scale as a free hand line could go awry with a light tremble of the hand. The AP then asks for the national identity card (NIC) number which she enters on the ballot paper counterfoil. Then my mother stamps her thumb on the counterfoil. The APO also tells another officer (may be assistant to APO) sitting in a classroom chair, some two and a half metres away, to mark my mother’s name off from a second list. I wish this other officer too had a desk. I am about to suggest that she move closer to the APO, I hold back. I long to work here as volunteer and assist the Commission staff. Communicating from a distance, it takes the officer a while to browse through the list and find the name. The APO tears along the dotted line and removes the ballot paper from the counterfoil and hands it over to an officer sitting next to her who stamps the back of the ballot paper. Her thumb receives an ink line near the nail for marking that she has voted. Then she gets a tiny stamp carrying which she goes to the stamping enclosure stand. The enclosure screens the voter’s face, hand, and the ballot paper.
The fresh green ballot paper with three columns and 4-5 rows has some 12-15 signs; scooter, kite, lion, arrow, tonga, bicycle, etc., to name a few. The paper is a little light weight and you could see the stamp mark that the officer sitting next to APO put on the backside. My mother gets confused seeing so many signs of parties and independent candidates and ink of the back stamp. Because of her head movement I notice something and reach to her rescue. She could not clearly mark out her stamped. She goes again to the stamp pad which was on an officer’s and re-inks the stamp, runs to the sacred enclosure and stamps between the party sign and name of the candidate. Feeling satisfied she folds it vertically and asks an officer in a confirming tone if that is the right way. The officer replies, “just do it any way.” My mother then informs her: “they show on TV to first fold vertically and then horizontally otherwise the vote will be discarded.” The officer gives an agreeing nod to get over it. My mother casts her vote.
During this time my voting process also initiates. I see the PO instructing the APO and other officers to move their desk to the right for convenience. He seems to me a good guy, calmly and politely delivering instructions. One of the officers tells my mother that she cannot vote because she is here at work and cannot go to her village to cast. My name was already spotted to be just below my mother’s name in the list. She uses the 6-inch scale to mark off my name. I wish she had a 12-inch scale for an easy grasp and sliding. My NIC number is entered and I stamp my thumb on the counterfoil. My ballot paper then gets a stamp at the back and my right thumb an ink line between the nail and the knuckle. The APO asks me if that is the precise place to mark on the thumb. I get a shock. I head for the enclosure and with the name of Allah stamp on the candidate of my choice. I vote for the first time and that too in the mother of all elections! I smile to myself. I give the paper a vertical fold and then horizontal just as my mother preached earlier and slide it down the slot in the green, white, made in China, plastic ballot container like a stronghold guarding our future from all four sides. I think of quartet of goddesses protecting the sacred shrines and treasures of pharaohs of ancient Egypt.




Pakistan’s struggle for democracy
Dr. Nazir Khaja

PAKISTAN’S parliamentary elections were held yesterday. Though this may be the last call for the country to remain as a functional democracy, the signs are anything but hopeful. Ethnic and provincial differences, religious zeal, feudal control, dynastic politics, corruption, and army’s ambition — all have prevented Pakistan’s emergence as a strong nation. The betrayal of Pakistan by the politicians is a long and sad story. There can hardly be any doubt that as much as the army might be blamed for some of the crises that Pakistan has gone through in its short history, the politicians deserve an even greater share. They have been so corrupt and have created such confusion and chaos by manipulating religious, ethnic, provincial and linguistic issues and sentiments; it was this incapacity of the political leadership that led to the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971. Because of the failure of the civilian leadership there have been repeated military takeovers. It is, therefore, hardly any surprise that there is not one leader from any of the competing factions who has the capability to hold Pakistan together and take it past this crisis. All without exception have been a part of Pakistan’s problem rather than its solution. There is now increasing concern regarding further breakup of the country.
In Sindh, the stronghold of Benazir Bhutto’s PPP or the Peoples’ Party of Pakistan, a majority of the people are poor serfs subservient to the landowners. Loyalty demands that their feudal masters be obeyed and supported. This explains Benazir’s will and her husband Zardari’s claim now to lead the PPP and hopefully to become the next prime minister. In Punjab that has remained dominant in the power politics of Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) that supports President Musharraf, expects to win a major chunk of seats in the National Assembly. Punjab has been the PML’s mainstay. However the PML has been split into two factions — PML (Q) and PML (N). The former which claims to be the original or the one founded by Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, is actually a creation of President Musharraf. The latter group supports the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was ousted by Musharraf. Actually the split happened over the support for Sharif.
The other party that is a coalition partner of President Musharraf and controls the port city of Karachi, the most populous city of Pakistan, and the capital of Sindh is the MQM or the Mutahidda (Muhajir) Qaumi Mahaz. The party that champions the cause of Urdu-speaking migrants from India became well organized quickly after its birth in the early 1980s. After it achieved a modest amount of success in the elections early it split into two factions fighting each other for control. Ultimately the control was taken over by mostly reactionary and shortsighted faction. All of this has caused a decline in their appeal. Yet because of Karachi’s vital place in Pakistan’s economy and politics they have a lot of influence. The other parties (for example the religious groups) which had only played a nuisance role in Pakistani politics until recently have now been empowered only because of Musharraf’s need to maintain a coalition and hold on to the reins of power. In the last elections the religious groups were able to amass a lot of power in the two most troubled provinces of Pakistan (the Frontier and Balochistan) where they control the provincial assemblies. They have always had more slogans than policies up their sleeves and can hardly help Pakistan out of the mess.—Arab News