Ashraf Ghani: Now and Then

By:      Aasef Chauhdry

It was probably the third week of February 2015 when publically Afghan President Ashraf Ghani saluted Pakistan’s cooperation while Kabul was expecting former to lay the groundwork for peace with Taliban insurgents. His words were, “Afghanistan “appreciates Pakistan’s recent efforts in paving the ground for peace and reconciliation and we welcome the recent position Pakistan has taken in pronouncing Afghanistan’s enemy as Pakistan’s.” he in fact went a little further and cited two major attacks those helped to bring the countries closer together — one in Yahya Khel in Afghanistan in November 2014 that left nearly 50 people dead, and the TTP massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014 that killed 153, mostly children. Just before that Pakistani Interior minister said that relations between the two countries had never been better. He further said, “I think Afghanistan and Pakistan, working in close hands and in close cooperation, it will do wonders for cooperation in the field of counterterrorism”.

Mr. Ghani, who pledged to make peace talks a priority, as well as supportive signals from Pakistan, which has long held significant influence with the Taliban, have however boosted hopes for possible dialogue. He made a historic statement when said, “There are obviously elements opposing the peace process by spreading false information to cause public confusion and anxiety”. May be he didn’t knew then that what consequence this statement will have in future.

In April 2015, during his visit to India while answering Indian journalist Suhasni Haidar’s question in a interview Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani referring to the possibility of India being included in, or be a beneficiary of the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit and Trade Agreement (APTTA), he said that Regional cooperation requires a legal free-flow of goods and people. We are not asking Pakistan for any exceptional treatment. We are asking Pakistan for “national treatment”. Pakistani trucks come all the way to Attari. Why should Afghan trucks stop at Wagah? It’s a major cost for that distance, to load, unload and re-load. It is an incredible imposition on the cost of business. Sovereign states deal with sovereign equality. If we are not given equal transit access, then we will not provide equal transit access to Central Asia and we are clear. In our talks with the Commerce Minister of Pakistan (Khurram Dastgir) we have made it clear that it needs to be reciprocal. Relations between countries, especially when it comes to business, if there were significant reasons, if we had not accorded national treatment to Pakistani trucks, then we could have understood. This was the first visible change in the Afghan President.

It looks as if the Indian miscreants were on the job and succeeded in doing what they desperately wanted. In June 2015 the desperate and frustrated Ashraf Ghani once again demanded tough action from Pakistan against Taliban militants in a letter seeking greater anti-terrorism cooperation, after facing strong public criticism over a controversial intelligence-sharing deal between the neighbours. Although the spy agencies of both countries in June 2015 agreed to trade intelligence and bolster cooperation in their fight against the Taliban, the latest sign of a thaw in once-frosty ties, however, Ashraf Ghani didn’t look contended and wanted more to do. There is no denying that Pakistan had launched operation against terrorists of all hues and shades including remnants of Haqqani network, but with mounting terror attacks in Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani was being criticized by members of both side of the divide for having concluded intelligence-sharing agreement with Pakistan.

The Afghan government’s anger at Pakistan over the Taliban spring offensive was hyperbolic — the Afghan National Security Forces have had years to prepare for this first summer of fighting where instead of foreign troops they were front and centre. By making the spring offensive, an issue, the opponents of deal were trying to instigate Afghan side to demand Pakistan to take action against terrorists. The distracters of the deal were trying to misguide Afghan leadership that Pakistan was again playing on both sides but the fact was that situation was quite contrary, Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif was quite committed to take action against terrorists of all hues and colors and very much keen to have cordial ties with neighboring country. President Ashraf Ghani had of course taken steps to soothe Pakistani concerns about Indian influence in Afghanistan. Relegating India to the periphery of his foreign policy, he had sent a group of army cadets to an academy in Pakistan as opposed to India, where Afghan soldiers are normally trained, and suspended a request for Indian weapons. Hence, Ashraf Ghani was not expected to hear the distracters.

However, in March this year seeing the changing mood of the afghan government, mainly played and commanded by pro Indian Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan Taliban also expressed their displeasure and said that they would not take part in peace talks brokered by a four-way group including representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States. Following a meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group made up of representatives of the four countries in Kabul in February, officials said they expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin in early March. But the Taliban publicly denied they would be participating in any upcoming talks in Islamabad. With the American troops remaining in the country conducting air strikes and special operations raids in support of the Kabul government, the Taliban would not participate in talks, the group said in a statement. Islamic Emirate once again reiterated that unless the occupation of Afghanistan is ended, blacklists eliminated and innocent prisoners freed, such futile misleading negotiations will not bear any results. On the other hand, direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban have been on hold since last year’s announcement of the death of the movement’s founder and long-time leader Mullah Omar some two years earlier. New leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has laid down preconditions for taking part in any talks as he struggles to overcome factional infighting, with some breakaway groups opposing any negotiations whatsoever.

And finally the day came when the Afghan President, while addressing a joint session of the Afghan parliament, very bluntly made a shift in his previous pro Pakistan stance and on April 25, 2016 said that Kabul will no longer seek Pakistan’s role in the ongoing peace talks with Taliban. The lame and repeated excuse he rendered was that, “Pakistan had promised to aid peace talks but we no longer expect Islamabad to bring Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table”. The Afghan president’s rare address to the joint session was aired live on state and private TV channels.

When asked for handing over the TTP’s trouble makers in Afghanistan the Afghan President would avoid answering such requests but at the same time very openly demands, “We want Pakistan to honour its commitment and take military action against the Afghan Taliban. We want them to handover the Taliban to the Afghan government so we can try them in Shariah courts”.  He described the Taliban as ‘ignorant’. Ghani’s comments came as the relationship between the two neighbouring countries deteriorates once again following a deadly attack on Afghan security agency headquarters in Kabul on April 19 which is strongly expected to be planned and carried out by the Indian RAW elements. Meanwhile, expressing anger at Ghani’s remarks Taliban described Afghan rulers as “slaves” and said they have been “imposed by John Kerry” on the Afghan people. “The rulers should face the fate like Dr Najeeb,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said while referring to public hanging of the Communist leader in 1996.

Apparently the Indians have succeeded in creating misunderstanding among two great neighbours, however it won’t last long since at the end of the day the Afghan government would need someone whom the Afghan Taliban listen and that someone is certainly not India. It’s high time for Ashraf Ghani to understand it earliest possible.