KARACHI, Feb 27: A two-day international workshop on the challenge of rebuilding in Afghanistan will begin here on Wednesday to deliberate on the situation arising out of the collapse of the Taliban regime and the formation of a new security and political paradigm which the West is trying to implant in that country under the umbrella of the UN and the NATO.

Organized by the International Relations department of Karachi University under its programme on peace studies and conflict resolution, in collaboration with the Hans Seidel Foundation, Islamabad, about 10 Afghan scholars will attend the workshop that would focus on several questions about the issues of reconstruction, political stabilization and security in that war-torn country.

This would be the first time that so many Afghan scholars would gather in Pakistan to express views on their country's transformation in the post-Taliban era. Eminent scholars from home and abroad would attempt to give analytical presentation on what were the important aspects of the Afghan power politics, rebuilding and reconstruction, interests of regional and extra-regional powers in Afghanistan and their role in country's reconstruction, and impediments in realizing that objective.

The participants will also discuss the impact of 9/11 and linkages between the Afghan crisis and international terrorism, how the issues of war lordism, disarmament, poppy growing, drug money, ethnicity, refugees and women would affect the task of rebuilding Afghanistan.

It will be an interesting exercise to get to know about attempts to give a constitution and a stable representative government and how war lordism in ethnically dominated tribal society had fared so far.