Afghan instability

THE situation in Afghanistan continues to be precarious. The recent killing of four German soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul served to emphasize this point. Regrettably, the Afghan home minister chose to blame Pakistan-based militants for his own failure to improve the security situation in Kabul. While President Karzai was himself circumspect, Ali Ahmad Jalali said those involved in attacks in Afghanistan were coming from bases in Pakistan. Both he and his president said — perhaps not without some justification — that the Taliban as a movement were finished. However, Jalali alleged that the trouble was coming not from elements based in Afghanistan but those operating from Pakistan. He hoped that Pakistan security forces, “who are also committed to fight terrorism”, would intensify their operations against militants.

Pakistan has been the frontline state in the fight against terror. Even when the Indian troops were massed on Pakistan’s eastern border last summer, Islamabad still did not withdraw troops from its Afghan border. It has also arrested some leading Al Qaeda leaders and smashed a number of terrorist cells. However, given the mountainous nature of the terrain along the Afghan-Pakistan border, the war on terror needs a sustained campaign. While Pakistan is doing all it can to curb the activities of the militants, it is the Karzai administration and its international backers that need to do more to improve the security situation inside Afghanistan.

The Taliban government might have ended, but Taliban sympathizers and Al Qaeda cells continue to exist in Afghanistan. The Afghan army has not expanded, and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) refuses to operate beyond Kabul. This provides enough space for anti-Karzai elements — not necessarily Taliban supporters — to hide and carry out their activities. Karzai’s statement last month about the provincial governors’ refusal to share revenues with Kabul show the helplessness of his government. The truth is that because of Iraq the focus of world attention has shifted away from Afghanistan. America itself now seems to assign a low priority to Afghanistan. The urgent task of the country’s post-war reconstruction does not seem to have even begun. The huge amount of money pledged at Tokyo has not been forthcoming, and one cannot blame the donors. No aid-giver would pump money into a country where anarchy prevails.

Clearly, a two-pronged effort is needed to restore a semblance of normality in Afghanistan. First, America needs to pay more attention to the problems of the Karzai administration. This should take the form not only of more funding from America and its allies but a gradual increase in the area to be guarded by the ISAF. An international force confined to Kabul can hardly help improve the security situation countrywide. Two, the Karzai administration should do more politically to win over the loyalties and cooperation of warlords and governors. Afghanistan never had a central government in the accepted sense of the term. It had generally been a loose confederacy of tribal chieftains. The monarchy had given Afghanistan peace because it commanded the loyalty of the governors without depriving them of autonomy in their regions. It is time the Karzai administration paid more attention to the need for a political approach to the issue and tried to win over the support of the governors through the Afghan practice of having a political set-up based on tribal consent. Afghans have always been hostile to foreign forces. Ultimately, security and harmony must come to Afghanistan through the efforts of its own people.

Capital’s development budget

THE budget that has been allocated for the capital territory in the fiscal year 2003-04 include Rs 1.29 billion under the public sector development programme. The government has listed a host of facilities in the capital territory on which this money will be spent. On closer look however, only three projects alone — the dualization of the short road from Pir Wadhai bus stand to Faizabad (Rs 400 million), improvement of the I-9 sewerage treatment plant (Rs 300 million) and the construction of the judicial and administration complex (Rs 179.842 million), take up nearly 70 per cent of the development allocation for the capital. Nothing has been said about improving the roads in many sectors of the capital that have been in a bad state of repair for many years. The other major problem that many of the capital’s residents face is accessibility to clean drinking water. Yet the public sector development projects listed in the budget do not seem to include improving facilities that would ensure an assured supply of tap water.

The Rs 374 million earmarked for improvement in the capital’s educational institutions is hardly enough to bring the existing federal government schools and colleges, into better shape. The amount is grossly inadequate for some 27 schemes in the education sector, including the construction of several new schools in the newer sectors of the capital, establishment of community primary schools, the provision of free textbooks in primary schools and the upgradation of federal and secondary schools and colleges. The amount allocated for the improvement of health institutions in the capital — Rs 187 million — is even more so. This amount is not enough even to pull the Federal Government Services Hospital, also known as Polyclinic, out of the dire straits it is in, to say nothing of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Health and the Health Services Academy which too are meant to be looked after out of this amount. Real improvement in the overall facilities for the people in Islamabad can be realized only if more funds are set aside for this purpose than what has been allocated.

Littering in scenic spots

THE need for solid waste management, as pointed out by environmental experts in a recent seminar in Gilgit, is quite a serious one. In fact, the problem is found all over the country’s northern areas, from Hazara’s Galiyat region to Kaghan, Swat and all the way to Chitral near the Afghan border. For example, a traveller going to evergreen Nathiagali will be shocked to see that the shopkeepers and hotel owners of the town’s main bazar throw their daily rubbish down the hillside. On the road to Abbotabad, looking back at the thickly forested ridge of Nathiagali, one sees heaps of waste and garbage dumped down the slopes. The situation in most areas is so bad that tourists are advised not to drink water from local streams, especially around inhabited areas like bazars and villages, because of fear of contamination.

Part of the reason for the increased amounts of solid waste in our Northern Areas is that more and more domestic tourists are visiting these places. Unfortunately, many of them are not known for a strong civic sense not to throw around garbage and be particular about sanitation. Though, the region is mostly mountainous and has difficult terrain, landfill sites could be found where the solid waste could be dumped. This is not an impossibility for the simple reason that the waste generated in, say, even a popular tourist spot like Naran in the Kaghan valley, could be deposited in a demarcated landfill. Local governments and non-governmental organizations should take the lead in creating awareness among the local population that for reasons of health, hygiene, and better business, they should develop means of proper solid waste disposal.