| 29 January 2004 | Thursday | 06 Zilhaj 1424 |
Sustained dialogue
Fata industrial estates
Finally, Afghanistan has a constitution. Promulgated through a decree signed by President Hamid Karzai on Monday, the 162-article constitution was approved by the Loya Jirga last month and thus reflects the Afghan people's consensus on the basic law.
That the document has not been drafted by an elite seeking to manipulate the Loya Jirga was evident from the way the grand assembly of elders worked. There were heated debates, and at times it appeared the jirga would break up without approving a constitution. That it finally managed to reach a consensus shows the will of the Afghan people to live together as a nation.
The constitution provides for a strong presidential system with a bicameral legislature and emphasizes Afghanistan's Islamic character by declaring that no law could be enacted if it went against the dictates of Islam. At the same time, the document recognizes the country's multi-ethnic make-up and has many progressive features.
For instance, it gives official status to regional languages in areas where they are spoken and pledges to work for their development, without compromising the position that Dari and Pashto have traditionally enjoyed. This should be welcomed by people in the northern regions where Uzbek and Tajik (Persian) are spoken. Similarly, it seeks to protect the rights of minorities, women and nomads. Those who were advocating a parliamentary system have managed to secure some checks and balances with regard to presidential powers.
It should be noted that every constitution is as good or bad as those who practise it. We know from our own experience in Pakistan that none of our constitutional schemes has worked because those who were supposed to uphold the nation's supreme law failed to live by their oath. In Afghanistan, the situation since the Soviet invasion in 1979 has been abnormal.
The resistance to occupation, the country's liberation, the ensuing civil war among mujahideen factions, the rise and fall of the Taliban, and the events since have presented the Afghan leaders with a new challenge, and they have no choice but to make a success of the new constitution.
Throughout its history, Afghanistan has lived as a tribal confederacy. Even though the Pakhtoons have traditionally dominated Afghanistan, the monarchy had the wisdom to carry the non-Pakhtoon communities with it. Whether the new Afghan leadership will be able to show this political sagacity remains to be seen. At this moment, it is the Pakhtoons who suffer from a sense of deprivation. Even though Mr Karzai is himself a Pakhtoon, his administration is dominated by the Tajiks.
Since the Taliban were mostly Pakhtoon, the interim administration installed as a result of the Bonn accords seemed to give more importance to leaders and groups representing the Northern Alliance. This could continue to be a source of instability for Afghanistan. All one can say is that the election due in June should serve to sort this out. One hopes that the law and order situation will improve by then so that the general election is held peacefully.
The Karzai administration has not yet succeeded in raising the Afghan national army to the stipulated level. For that reason, the responsibility for security rests with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force. This is not a happy situation, for the Afghans have been traditionally hostile to the presence of foreign elements on their soil.
On hopes that the Karzai administration will be able to disarm the unofficial militias, whose strength is estimated at a minimum of 100,000, and that the election will be held peacefully to herald a new era of peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Sustained dialogue
There will be a general sense of relief that the "composite dialogue" promised in the Pakistan-India joint statement of January 6 is on track. There was some speculation that the early scheduling of general elections in India might throw the proposed timetable out of kilter.
But announcements on Tuesday from both Islamabad and New Delhi have said talks will be held in Islamabad from the 16th to the 18th of next month, initially at the senior officials' level and then moving on to a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries.
It will be premature to talk about the agenda, which indeed will probably be worked out in this first structured Indo-Pakistan contact after a long break. But the term "composite" now in use is a useful one that covers concerns of both sides. Officials have a tendency to nit-pick, and they can be obstructive and tiresome. Clear political direction will therefore be needed from the leaderships of the two countries to make sure that we do not again get derailed by acrimonious exchanges that have characterized bilateral relations for decades.
It will take time to get down to brass tacks, but right now the most important thing is to reassure everyone that the process initiated by the Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting this month is going to be sustained. There may be hiccups on the way, but if there are firm indicators that both countries are determined to remain engaged in a civil and meaningful dialogue, the way will be clear for initiatives to be taken in many fields.
For instance, the private sector might be hesitant to explore opportunities of cooperation because they are not sure whether the existing pleasant climate will last. Collaboration in the scientific, medical, technological and media fields may be marked by similar uncertainties. The emphasis should be on sustainability of the current peace momentum rather than on instant solutions. The signals coming out of the Islamabad meeting will be carefully monitored by large sections of people in both countries.
Fata industrial estates
The disclosure by the NWFP governor that the federal government plans to set up two industrial estates in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) should be welcomed by the people of the areas. The proposed industrial estates will be set up in Dara Adam Khel and the Khyber Agency. Dara Adam Khel, located south-west of Peshawar, and the Khyber Agency to the north of the provincial capital, both consist of arid land that does not support even subsistence-level agriculture.
The local economy in Dara Adam Khel is based largely on the gun-making cottage industry, which has continued to exist on the border line between what is legal and what is not. As for the Khyber Agency, the local economy is supported by the passage of goods under the Afghan transit trade, the Bara markets and the massive smuggling activity that the two foster.
Therefore, the existing means of livelihood available to Fata residents remain erratic at best and illegal at worst. Successive governments in the past may have ignored this anomaly for various reasons - tradition, a convenient interpretation of the tribal law over the law of the land, or just for political exigencies.
But, following the change in the situation in Afghanistan and the prospects of the World Trade Organization regime coming into force next year, such a laissez-faire policy on the part of the government is no longer tenable.
There is good reason to believe that the government's proposed plan to end the illicit arms trade and smuggling by setting up industrial estates has the support of local tribal elders. One can say this with some certainty because the land for the purpose will have to be acquired from the local tribes as the federal government does not own any real estate in Fata. Indeed, if implemented with good intentions on both sides, the plan can go a long way in generating lawful employment opportunities for the people of the two tribal areas concerned.