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US accepts Durand Line as formal Pak-Afghan border: Burns
By SAYED JAWAD - 12 May 2013, 10:00 pm Khaama Press
The United States of America on Sunday once again emphasized on the legal status of Durand Line as the border line between Afghanistan and Pakistan despite Afghan president Hamid Karzai insisted that the government of Afghanistan will never accept the legal status of Durand Line.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Sunday told reports in capital Kabul that Washington’s stance on this issue remains unchanged, and is similar to Marc Grossman’s remarks on the legal status of Durand Line.
Former US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, March Grossman earlier insisted that Washington recognize Durand Line as the formal boder between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was later confirmed by US ambassador to Afghanistan during his visit to southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan.
The remarks by US officials were widely criticized by the government of Afghanistan.
Durand Line was established after an agreement in 1893 between Mortimer Durand of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, however the issue of the Durand Line agreement remains unresolved after the formation of Pakistan.
The issue of Durand Line is considered to be one of the main controversial issues between Kabul and Islamabad.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai earlier announced that the government of Pakistan has been putting pressure on Afghanistan in a bid to force the Afghan government to recognize Durand Line as the formal border the between the two nations.
President Karzai also insisted that the government of Afghanistan will never accept the legal status of Durand Line, however deputy secretary of state William Burns called on Kabul and Islamabad to concentrate on improving their bilateral relations.
Top U.S. Diplomat Says Afghan Forces Taking Security Control
May 12, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns says the United States expects that Afghan forces will lead all combat operations in Afghanistan before the end of this year.
Speaking May 11 on a visit to Kabul, Burns said Afghan forces are already in the lead in 90 percent of all combat operations against militants.
He said the plan remains on track to fully transfer all security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, when all international combat forces are expected to have withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Burns met with Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul for the second meeting of the Afghanistan-U.S. Bilateral Commission, which was established in the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama one year ago.
Based on reporting by AP and state.gov
Taliban Free Four Turkish Engineers
May 12, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the Taliban have freed four Turkish engineers in Afghanistan.
Speaking at a rally in Istanbul on May 12, Erdogan said that the freed individuals were among the eight Turkish engineers kidnapped recently in southeastern Afghanistan after their helicopter crashed.
"Thanks to the efforts of MIT [Turkish intelligence], four of [the engineers] were handed over to us and are safe," he said.
The Turkish nationals were on board a Russian helicopter in April when it made a "hard landing" in a remote part of Logar province because of bad weather.
They were taken hostage by the Taliban along with an Afghan and two pilots from Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Security Agreement Crucial for Long-term Security: Rassoul
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 11 May 2013
The Afghan Foreign Minister on Saturday said that finalising Afghanistan-United States security agreement is crucial for long-term security in both Afghanistan and the region.
The foreign minister as well said that continuation of cooperation with International Community should take Afghanistan to constant peace.
The conditions of both countries in signing security agreement are under investigation but the date of signing is still unclear.
“Finalising the bilateral security and defence cooperation agreement between the two countries is crucial for long-term security and stability of Afghanistan and to broader region.” Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said at the Conference.
Meanwhile, the United States Deputy Secretary of State William Joseph Burns said that Security Agreement will be signed between the US and Afghanistan as two independent countries.
“I emphasised here one year ago, As the Afghan People stand up, you will not stand alone. America and many others will stand with you, we have come too far, sacrificed too much and worked too hard to train back now,” the United States Deputy Secretary of State William Joseph Burns said.
Beside security transition, Afghanistan in 2014 will witness political transition process which links to the future security of Afghanistan.
“A successful political transition is a central prerequisite for sustainable security. It is widely important that the election next date be transparent, credible and inclusive this is why we continue to provide electoral assistance, supporting the process,” William Joseph Burns said.
International forces mission against insurgency is since 12 years in Afghanistan is close at the end and expects that their mission will be completed till little months but whatever assures security post 2014 in Afghanistan is security agreement with the US.
Previously, Afghan President Hamed Karzai has said that the United Sates asked to have nine bases after 2014 in Afghanistan but giving immunity is another controversial issue between Afghanistan and the United Sates over signing security agreement.
U.S., Afghanistan Officials Discuss Security Pact
AP By Rahim Faiez 05/11/13
Kabul, Afghanistan - Senior American and Afghan officials held talks Saturday to try to iron out the details of a key pact signed a year ago that defines the future of the United States' commitment to Afghanistan.
The Strategic Partnership Agreement outlines a set of principles and general commitments for relations between Washington and Kabul after 2014, when foreign combat troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan. But there is lingering uncertainty over whether either party will be willing or able to stick to the provisions of the pact, which includes several loopholes for both nations.
The meeting Saturday in Kabul between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul is the second round of negotiations over how to implement the agreement, which was signed in May 2012 by President Barak Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The deal spells out Washington's commitment to Afghanistan over the next 10 years as well as its expectations of Kabul, including free and fair presidential elections next year, pledges to fight corruption, improve efficiency and protect human rights, including women's rights.
Sticking points may include the amount of funds the U.S. provides to Afghan security forces. The two countries are also still squabbling over a separate agreement that would protect from prosecution a residual force of as many as 10,000 U.S. troops who would stay behind after the final withdrawal.
In remarks before Saturday's talks, Burns promised that Washington would stick by Afghanistan and its nascent national security forces after 2014 and the end to the international combat mission.
But the deal allows either country to opt out with a one year's notice, which means that Karzai's successor in next year's presidential elections could scuttle the agreement.
Karzai's election in 2009 was marred by widespread allegations of corruption, vote tampering and election fraud. He denied the charges but the acrimonious aftermath tainted his relationship with the West, which was the most vocal of his critics.
The pact emphasizes a free, fair and transparent election in 2014. Karzai however has been relentless in his criticism of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan's political process, alleging Washington was maneuvering secretly to strengthen his political opposition even though he cannot run for a third term.
Burns denied that Washington was backing any candidate to replace Karzai.
"We are supporting the process and not any particular candidate," he said, adding the elections next year should be "transparent, credible and inclusive."
Burns also repeated Washington's support for the opening of an office for the Taliban in Qatar to provide a venue where Karzai's High Peace Council could meet Taliban representatives to try to find a peaceful end to the 12-year war.
The Taliban have met representatives of about 30 countries, participated in international forums in Tokyo and France, and held backdoor talks with Afghanistan's opposition politicians. But they have steadfastly refused to meet Karzai's representatives including the High Peace Council, calling his government a "puppet."
Karzai recently accused the United States of trying to bring his political opponents and the Taliban together, an allegation the U.S. denied and Burns tried also to dispel in his opening remarks.
"We reaffirm our support for the office in Doha for the purpose of negotiation between the High Peace Council and the Taliban," Burns said.
The U.S. diplomat added that on the security front, Washington is on track to transfer full control of Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces by the end of the year.
There are 350,000 Afghan National Security Forces deployed throughout the country, although there has been criticism that the training, which was rarely more than two months, was inadequate and Karzai has often complained of a lack of military equipment to outfit his forces. NATO officials nonetheless say that this spring, when the weather allows more military activity, is the first of the 12-year war in which Afghan forces have done the majority of the fighting.
The next meeting is scheduled for Washington in October. Rasoul at the last meeting said he expected a conclusion of the talks within eight to 10 months but US is not giving a time frame.
As negotiations lumber along, Afghan analysts said it is difficult to foresee the results of an agreement signed almost one year ago.
"So far we haven't seen any practical steps forward from the Strategic Partnership Agreement," said analyst and former Parliamentarian Abbas Nuyan. "Maybe there are some but if there are we are not aware of it."
"The most important factors ... are security in the country, tensions between Afghanistan and its neighbors, upcoming elections and the fight against corruption, which is a serious issue not just for us but for the international community," Nuyan said.
Afghanistan says nine migrants killed by Iranian border guards
Reuters By Sharafuddin Sharfyar May 11, 2013
Herat, Afghanistan - Iranian guards fired on a large group of Afghan migrants illegally crossing the border overnight, killing at least nine people, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
Hostility to the U.S. role in Afghanistan, regional ambitions and an economy choked by Western sanctions have contributed to a tough Iranian policy against Afghan migrants who flee war and seek work in their more prosperous neighbour.
The Iranian Interior Ministry in Tehran declined to comment. Iranian officials in Kabul could not be reached.
Around 300 Afghan men were trying to make their way from Afghanistan's western Farah province into Iranian territory when the guards opened fire, witnesses and officials said.
"Nine Afghans were killed, but the number may increase," said Abdul Samad Khan, district governor of Lash-e-Joveyn in Farah province near the Iranian border.
Farah police chief Abdul Hakim Angar put the death toll at 10 and eight wounded. Five wounded men lay in hospital beds in the provincial capital Farah, their feet and heads bound in bandages, TV footage showed.
"As soon as they touched Iranian soil the Iranian border police opened fire," said Farah governor's spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhwandai. Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry and its independent Human Rights Commission said they were looking into the reports of deaths.
As NATO and its foreign partners prepare to end their combat role in Afghanistan by the end of next year, attention is turning towards its neighbours and what role they could play in helping build the country's future.
The 2.4 million Afghans living in Iran - 1 million of whom are allowed to live there legally as refugees - have been a thorn in the side of Afghan-Iranian relations. Last year Tehran threatened to expel them if Kabul signed a strategic security pact with Washington. That deal was struck.
Hundreds of Afghans cross the 1,000-km (620-mile) border daily, paying sums of about $700 (455.55 pounds) to smugglers to ferry them across. Iranian security forces rarely kill them.
Last year, Afghanistan said at least 23 Afghan migrants were killed by Iranian border police.
Afghan district prosecutor dies in bombing in Helmand
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, May 12 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan district prosecutor was killed in bomb attack in the country's southern province of Helmand on Sunday morning, said a provincial government spokesman.
"The Marja district prosecutor, Mohammad Lal Hakimi, was travelling to office at around 7 a.m. local time Sunday but his car was struck by a roadside bombing in the district, killing him on the spot," spokesman Omar Zhwak told Xinhua.
He blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack in the province 555 km south of capital Kabul.
The armed outfit which launched an annual rebel offensive late last month has said anyone working for government and the NATO-led troops are legitimate target.
Earlier this month, the provincial Peace Council chief and a local elder were shot dead by militants in Helmand.
A total of 2,754 civilians were killed and 4,805 injured in conflict-related violence in the war-hit country last year, according to a UN report released in February in Kabul.
Out of total casualties last year, up to 698 civilians were killed and 379 were wounded in targeted killings across the country.
What the Frontier of Afghanistan Tells Us About the War
Carter Malkasian, one of the American government's top experts on Afghanistan, spent two years with locals in one remote district, resulting in his new book, War Comes to Garmser. John Kael Weston speaks to Malkasian about what he learned from a dusty corner of the country.
The Daily Beast By John Kael Weston May 11, 2013
Carter Malkasian spent almost two years as a political officer with the State Department in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. He is considered one of the U.S. government’s top experts on Afghanistan and counterinsurgency. His new book, War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier, stands out for its in-depth analysis of one district, Garmser, located on the east bank of the Helmand River. Perhaps the rarest quality of his writing is the level of detail he provides into Afghans—their lives, stories, and sacrifices. Their perspective is an aspect of the current wave of war writing that’s been lacking, as has been the case with Iraqi voices. Many in the U.S. have indicted Afghans for being “corrupt” or “lazy” or “untrustworthy” and so on. Malkasian helps correct that superficial image.
I have known Malkasian for years, since we first met outside Fallujah in 2004. I spoke with him earlier this month in Washington, D.C., before he headed off to Kabul to work with Marine General Joseph Dunford, the top commander in Afghanistan.
What’s your inspiration for the book?
I spent 18 months, in two separate deployments, in Al Anbar, Iraq. When I got back, I always meant to write a book but never found the time. I wrote several short articles and a few research studies but nothing more. It is one of my biggest regrets. The memories faded. The details went grey. When I got home from Afghanistan, I was determined to take the time to write something.
The book follows in the footsteps of Jeffrey Race's War Comes to Long An. Fluent in Vietnamese, Race told the story of a single province in Vietnam over a twenty-year period. His work offered a window into the ground truth of the Vietnam War. War Comes to Long An has a bright red cover, printed by the University of California Press. If that doesn’t scream radicalism, I don’t know what does. That book—tattered and worn—has found its way into my backpack in far off places for the past six years. I hope that War Comes to Garmser can also give the broad view of a small place, and maybe offer similar kinds of insights.
Why did you spend two years in Garmser, and how does this little district fit into the larger strategic picture?
War Comes to Garmser tells the story of the district of Garmser from the 1960s to 2012. Garmser has about 150,000 people, mostly living along the Helmand River in a fertile strip no more than 10 kilometers wide and 7 kilometers long. It is tribal, Islamic, and hot—Garmser means "hot place" in Persian. Pakistan is just a five-hour drive across open desert. For over thirty years, Garmser has been part of larger conflicts that have engulfed Afghanistan as a whole: first, the jihad and the ensuing civil war, then the Taliban, and finally the British and American intervention.
Garmser is the frontline of our war in Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2010, the district was almost entirely under Taliban control; the scene of some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan. It was here in 2006 that the Afghan government and the coalition suffered one of their most resounding defeats, as the Taliban launched their offensive that captured most of Helmand and Kandahar. After that, Great Britain and the United States put forth tremendous effort to reclaim Garmser, replete with professional governance programs, over $21 million in reconstruction projects, and over a thousand new Afghan soldiers and police. Garmser was one of the targets of the surge. One thousand Marines were sent there. The last chapters of the book talk about to what extent the surge succeeded and how things must now lie in the hands of the Afghans. For all these reasons, I think Garmser is a decent window into the war as a whole.
Tell us more about the Afghans. Unlike other books on this war, you place Afghans front and center. That's unique.
I have a hard time not admiring the Afghans. They face challenges unknown to Americans, even to our fighting forces. Afghans face years of war. They do not get to go back to a home in a peaceful country. They get no pension. Every year they face violence and death and have to do something to keep their families alive. In this environment, the resilience of the Afghans amazes me. So many are willing to put their lives on the line to bring some kind of peace to their country, losing family members and suffering wounds in the process.
One day, I was sitting at the long Pashtun wake for Abdul Hadi, a brave, intelligent, fallen policeman, whose uncle had been fighting the Taliban for years. The uncle reassured me that the losses came with the territory: “If you work for the government for 20 years, you will lose family members.” I know what I am saying does not fit conventional wisdom, which tends to paint Afghans as recalcitrant, lazy, and hopelessly corrupt. But that is not the whole picture. What I remember are Afghans who wanted a better future. In spite of all the violence, they carried on, year after year, working to build some kind of order out of war. Their experience was not one of futility but of fortitude.
Garmser is the frontline of our war in Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2010, the district was almost entirely under Taliban control; the scene of some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan.
Describe the case the Taliban had made in Garmser before coalition forces’ arrival in 2006, and the strengths they had?
I remember speaking with Taliban mullahs; black beards, white turbans, Arabic inflection to their Pashto. Many were good men, trying to help their community. The Taliban controlled Garmser from 1994 to 2001 and then again from 2006 to 2008. During those times, they tried to bring fair Islamic justice to the people and give land to the poorer tribes. Their devotion to Islam especially enhanced their credibility. One former Taliban judge and well-educated Islamic scholar told me: “The people had many problems...I believed the Taliban regime could bring them peace. The local villagers asked me to become a judge with the Taliban. I knew that the Taliban fighters could not do this work. So I asked [the Taliban district governor] if I could become a judge.” Above all, the Taliban brought order. The Taliban were organized and disciplined. Unlike the mujahedin or the government, they did not fight among themselves.
The people of Garmser today remember these things, but they also remember that today's government has brought schools and healthcare and just a little freedom for women. I do not think most Pashtuns want to see the Taliban return to power. Nor do I think most Pashtuns see the Taliban as hated enemies. I think that they would prefer peaceful reconciliation to years of war.
What about the Marines? As a civilian working with them every day, what were your impressions?
The Marines were the necessary condition for whatever success occurred in Garmser. Their patrolling, their bravery, their sacrifice gave the Afghans breathing room to take charge of their own affairs. Ahmed Shah, a veteran sergeant and former mujahedin who has fought the Taliban for 15 years, said: “The Marines are my brothers. They are good men. They fight like no one else ever before.” All my proceeds from the book will go to the Semper Fi Fund for Wounded Warriors, a charity that helps wounded Marines and their families. It is an easy thing to do but in no way pays my debt to the sergeants, lance corporals, and privates who watched my back on patrol after patrol in the fields and villages and bazaars of Garmser.
Civilians too have sacrificed and worked hard for Afghanistan. It was my time on PRTs [provincial reconstruction teams] and in Anbar that made me want to go to Garmser in the first place. The dedication of State Department diplomats such as Marlin Hardinger—on his fourth year in Lashkar Gah—is breathtaking. The work of many, sometimes Pashto-speakers, toiling away for years in dangerous places such as Asadabad, Musa Qala, Sangin—and heart-breakingly in Qalat—has too-often gone un-noticed in America. (Anne Smedinghoff, a U.S. diplomat, was killed in Qalat.)
What will happen over the next year as troops draw down? What's Garmser's future?
Last May, the Marines all but left. Since then, the Afghans have held and are holding today. Knock on wood. Everyday I nervously watch Garmser to see what will happen. Yet Pakistan is close. Garmser’s final reckoning still lies ahead, as does Afghanistan’s.
John Kael Weston spent seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2003-2010, with the State Department. He is writing a book on his time in both wars (Knopf, 2014).
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com
If Election Can Be Held in Pakistan, It Must Be Possible in Afghanistan: Analyst
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat 11 May 2013
A number of Afghan analysts on Saturday said that considering security threats in Pakistan, holding of election is also possible in Afghanistan and the government of Afghanistan should not use insecurity as a pretext not to hold elections.
The analysts add that however there are some common views from Pakistan's politicians and political parties against Afghanistan that Afghanistan is a weak country but a peaceful election is in favour of Afghanistan.
Pakistan's general election was held amid tight security measures on Tuesday. It is said that for providing security for this election more than 600,00 security forces have been stationed in different parts of the country.
Previously, offices of a number of candidates have not been safe against attacks.
But in Afghanistan a number of analysts have different opinions regarding holding of Pakistan's elections. The analysts say that considering Pakistan's security threats if the Afghan government has a strong will, holding of elections is possible in Afghanistan.
"Insecurity is a pretext for our government. If the government has a strong will for holding elections there is no problem and you see that the government is even endeavouring to delay approving the election law and Pakistan's parliamentary election is also effective for Afghanistan's situation," Mahmood Saiqal, international relations analyst told TOLOnews.
These analysts say that considering Pakistan's past policies against Afghanistan, every winning party in Pakistan doesn't want to see an independent and powerful neighbour.
"Supporting of Pakistan's civil government is also in favour of Afghanistan because It is better that the winning party of the election should support Pakistan's civil government because Pakistan's military governments always reached their goals through violence and extremism which has also affected Afghanistan," Nader Naderi member of Afghanistan research and evaluation unit told TOLOnews.
This one-day election is held while this country is witnessing termination of the first elected non-military government and handover of power to another government.
The people of Pakistan are hopeful that this election could put an end to massive corruption, power struggle and bankrupt economy of the country.
Internal Banks Dollar Accounts to Be Closed by German Commerce Bank
TOLOnews.com By Zabiulah Jahanmal 11 May 2013
Afghanistan Central Bank on Saturday said that in two months all country's internal banks' dollar accounts will be closed by German Commerce Bank.
Central bank officials said that representatives of the Commerce Bank in a joint session with a number of Afghan Central Bank officials on Saturday has claimed that after the month of July 2013, the country's dollar deals will not be performed by this bank.
Meanwhile, officials of the Private Union Banks raised concern over this decision of Commerce Bank and said that this decision will have negative impacts on Banks' dealings.
However, it is said that lack of implementation of prohibition of money laundering law and also lack of necessary programmes for preventing of supporting of terrorism are the motives that Commerce Bank the biggest dealing mediator between Afghanistan and Pakistan wants to close all dollar accounts of Afghanistan's banks, the central bank says that lack of professional capacity in Afghanistan's banks and failure in Bank accounts from a number of country's banks have caused that the Commerce Bank take the decision.
"Another reason that they submit is that they are under pressure by their American dealers, because every bank dealing that takes place should be cleared in the US.
On the other hand, it is said that officials of the German Commerce Bank, for arranging bank dealings to Europe and US has asked the officials of this bank to contract with other credible banks of the world but the officials of Union Private Bank considering the difficult condition of the world's credible banks calls this solution impossible in the short term," Noorlullah Dilawari head of Afghanistan Central Bank told TOLOnews.
"This measure is time consuming and it is impossible to make a connection with international credible banks in two or three months, On the other hand, a number of economic analysts call this immediate action of Commerce bank a pressure on country's banking system and say that the government should disclose all motives of this problem,"
Khalil Sediq head of Afghanistan Union of Private Banks told TOLOnews.
"The president and his team should respond to us and clarify what the reason is that they were previously dealing with us and now we are under pressure," Azarakhsh Hafezi head of international relations of Chambers of Commerce and Industries told TOLOnews.
German Commerce Bank is one of the credible banks of the world that has been facilitating bank dealings of Afghanistan's banks to Europe and US in the last 11 years. According to banking analysts, with closing of dollar accounts of Afghanistan's bank in this bank a major problem will be created but the central bank says that banks of the country should convince credible banks to solve their problem.
Ex-Premier Is Set to Regain Power in Pakistan Vote
New York Times By DECLAN WALSH May 11, 2013
LAHORE, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, once a political exile deposed by the military, returned to the cusp of power on Saturday, taking a commanding lead in a parliamentary election in which Pakistanis braved Taliban intimidation to cast ballots with historic prospects for the country’s democracy.
Record turnout was reported in several cities, incited by an energized political campaign dominated by the battle between Mr. Sharif and Imran Khan, the former cricket star whose appeal as an anticorruption crusader had many predicting he could play a kingmaker role.
But even with just partial returns in early Sunday, Mr. Sharif’s party appeared to have secured enough seats to form a government easily. His supporters ran cheering through the streets of Lahore, honking horns and, in some instances, firing bursts of celebratory gunshots.
While the raucous election highlighted the vibrancy of Pakistani politics, it also drew attention to the gaping holes in the country’s democracy.
Threats by the Taliban to disrupt voting were borne out in attacks across the country that left at least 21 people dead, including at least 11 in a bombing in Karachi and others in Baluchistan Province, where turnout greatly suffered.
Accusations of widespread vote irregularities in Karachi, the nation’s largest metropolis, led to the invalidation of results from dozens of polling places, officials said. Final results are likely to wait for days.
Even if Mr. Sharif faces no obstacles in forming a government, he will have to deal with a stalled economy, profound infrastructure failure and grave threats from an emboldened Taliban insurgency. Furthermore, he has promised to rein in American influence in Pakistan, leaving questions about the countries’ often-stormy relationship.
The election was Pakistan’s 10th since 1970 but the first in which a civilian government that has served a full five-year term is poised to peacefully hand power to another elected government.
Unlike previous elections, in which the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate was widely accused of vote manipulation and intimidation, this one offered little evidence of involvement by the military, which has ruled Pakistan directly for more than half its 66-year history.
Instead, the country was gripped by election fever, most of it driven by the contest between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Khan. In the final days of campaigning, the momentum appeared to be with Mr. Khan, who electrified voters with a series of mass rallies that tapped into a deep vein of support among young and middle-class Pakistanis in urban areas.
His ratings rose further after he fell nearly 15 feet to the ground at a rally in Lahore on Tuesday, badly injuring his back but winning widespread public sympathy.
But as the results flooded in late Saturday, and television projections gave Mr. Sharif up to 119 of the 268 elected seats on offer, against just 33 for Mr. Khan, promises of a revolutionary “tsunami” led by the former cricket player appeared to have vanished.
That result signaled a victory of sorts for old-style dynastic politics: the Sharifs have dominated Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, since the 1980s, and have cultivated voters for the past five years through development projects financed by the provincial government, which they controlled.
The other loser was President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which led the last government but now seems destined to the opposition benches.
Mr. Khan, however, was poised to capture a valuable consolation prize, one with potentially sharp implications for American policy: control of the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the Afghan border.
During his campaign rallies, Mr. Khan stridently said he would end C.I.A. drone strikes in the tribal belt, by ordering the Pakistani military to shoot down American aircraft if necessary. And he has said he believes that the Pakistani state should negotiate with Taliban insurgents, not fight them.
Still, it is Mr. Sharif who is likely to have the greatest impact on relations with the United States. A nationalist by inclination, Mr. Sharif, while publicly amenable to reaching out to the Americans, has also hinted that he was open to negotiating with Taliban rebels in the northwest — a stance that would greatly concern American officials as they try to withdraw from an Afghan war next door that has featured many cross-border attacks by those insurgents.
A conservative and a steel baron, Mr. Sharif was mentored in his political career by a military dictator, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, in the mid-1980s. But he turned against the generals after his ouster at the hands of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999, which resulted in a long exile in Saudi Arabia. Since then, many military men have viewed Mr. Sharif with suspicion.
He first came to American attention during Pakistan’s tense confrontation with India in 1999, when the possibility of a nuclear conflict was averted thanks to mediation by President Bill Clinton.
The election evoked a rare sense of enthusiasm for politics in Pakistan. About 4,670 candidates fought for 272 directly elected seats in Parliament, while almost 11,000 people battled for the four provincial assemblies. Aside from more traditional politicians, they included astrologers, transgender candidates, former models and the first female candidates in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.
Also running were dozens of candidates from Sunni sectarian groups, some with links to violent attacks on minority Shiites.
Mr. Khan’s campaign, in particular, had a carnival atmosphere because it drew so many young urban residents into politics, many of them first-time voters. In the wealthier neighborhoods of Lahore on Saturday, supporters danced in the streets and waved giant flags bearing Mr. Khan’s image.
But the sense of a vibrant, if flawed, democracy was tempered by Taliban attacks throughout the campaigning. The militant movement’s ability to derail campaigning, particularly in the mountainous northwest, was taken as a signal that it has evolved beyond its nihilistic guerrilla roots and has become a powerful political insurgency bent on upending Western-style democracy in Pakistan.
Campaigning was further marred Thursday when Ali Haider Gilani, 27, the son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was shot and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen as he addressed a campaign event in the city of Multan, in southern Punjab Province.
Two guards who tried to protect Mr. Gilani were shot to death; the candidate was reportedly bleeding from a gunshot wound as he was dragged into a vehicle and driven away.
In a statement on Friday, the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud ordered his commanders to attack the “infidel system” of democracy, warning that teams of suicide bombers would hit targets across the country.
At least 21 people were reported killed in attacks across Pakistan on Saturday, among them a gunfight and an attack on a polling place in the western province of Baluchistan and two explosions in the northwest, including in Peshawar, that injured several people. The deadly bombing in Karachi appeared to have been directed at a candidate from the Awami National Party, one of three secular-leaning parties that have borne the brunt of Taliban attacks that have killed at least 125 people in the last month.
The police established new checkpoints, and military helicopters patrolled the skies in Peshawar, the city that has been worst hit by militant violence over the years. Hospital workers were put on alert while billboards across the city asked residents to watch for suspicious activity.
After a slow start to voting, large numbers of voters emerged by midmorning, including many women. About 300 women in burqas stood in line outside the Lady Griffith High School, where policemen warned photographers not to take pictures of the women.
One of the women, Saba Iqbal, 35, a doctor, said she was going to vote for Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
“I never voted before,” she said, “but this time I want to be part of Imran Khan’s change.”
Mr. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party found itself badly overshadowed in the race after a lackluster and leaderless campaign.
The party developed a poor reputation for governance as the economy faltered in recent years and ministers failed to reverse crippling power shortages. Among the party kingpins who lost their seats on Saturday was Raja Pervez Ashraf, the previous prime minister, who suffered a crushing loss to a candidate from Mr. Sharif’s party.
There were also signs of irregularities like those that tainted some past votes. At least one party, Jamaat-e-Islami, withdrew its candidates from Karachi and Hyderabad, protesting that the election was being rigged at various polling places.
Officials blamed the Muttahida Quami Movement party, which has traditionally dominated Karachi. A senior official with the Jamaat called for a peaceful strike on Monday to protest reported vote-rigging in the city.
Prominent officials of both Mr. Zardari’s and Mr. Sharif’s parties lodged similar accusations, saying they would reject some results in Karachi.
After polls closed, the Election Commission of Pakistan said that its staff had been threatened in the city, but that the voting had generally gone well.
Early on Sunday, The New York Times bureau chief in Pakistan, Declan Walsh, prepared to leave the country three days after receiving a notice from the Interior Ministry that his visa had been canceled.
Mr. Walsh, who covered the elections on Saturday from Lahore, was accompanied to the airport by plainclothes intelligence agents, he said in a telephone interview. The men had closely paced him for hours.
He received the notice early Thursday morning from police officers outside his home in Islamabad. The order read in full: “It is informed that your visa is hereby canceled in view of your undesirable activities. You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours.”
No further details of any wrongdoing were given, and Pakistani officials did not respond to repeated requests for more information.
The Times’s executive editor, Jill Abramson, filed a formal complaint with the Pakistani government on Friday, seeking Mr. Walsh’s reinstatement and noting that his expulsion struck a troubling note for a country celebrating an important milestone as a democracy.
“The expulsion of an established journalist, on the day of the voting, contradicts that impression,” she wrote.
Reporting was contributed by Salman Masood from Gujar Khan, Pakistan; Zia ur-Rehman from Karachi, Pakistan; Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Peshawar, Pakistan; and Douglas Schorzman from New York.
Afghan Forces on Standby in Pakistan Border, Urging Talks First
TOLOnews.com By Lotfullah Najafizada 11 May 2013
After a second clash in a week on the Durand Line, the Afghan government has deployed additional forces in Goshta district of the eastern Nangarhar province, putting hundreds of border police backed by army and quick reaction force on standby to prevent the Pakistani military from rebuilding a gate ‘on the Afghan soil’.
The Afghan forces have engaged in fierce battles with the Pakistani forces twice in the past ten days, killing at least one Afghan border police and wounding three others. There are unconfirmed reports about Pakistani casualties too.
“We sent a letter to the Pakistanis asking them to stop building the gate, but they responded with missiles,” said the commander of an Afghan Border Police (ABP) unit in Goshta, Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Basir Kamawal, pointing at three Afghan border outposts as the sign of an intense battle. The towers have been severely damaged.
“More than a thousand rockets and other artilleries were fired on us. It was a serious battle. They have now brought tanks to threaten us.”
The Pakistani government said that their forces came under unprovoked fire from the Afghan side. The Afghans have disputed the account.
Pakistan recently started building a gate near a 10-year old border base. President Karzai said the gate and the base was on the Afghan soil. It has been questioned why a Pakistani military base built in Goshta was not as provocative as the gate for Afghanistan.
The Afghan government now says that both the gate and the base are on the Afghan territory, however, the target for the Afghan forces in the last two battles was to only destroy the gate, just more than 500 meters away from the Afghan post.
In the outpost where the battle took place, ABP has three towers, while the Pakistanis have a base with a dozen visible watch towers around the area.
Nearly 250 border police are stationed in Goshta. The Afghan National Army (ANA) are seen in considerable numbers down the hill, where they act as a standby force equipped with short-range missiles, ammunition and medical support.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior believes they have sufficient forces along the Durand Line. The ANA has three of its five corps headquartered in the eastern and southern provinces bordering Pakistan, with nearly 80,000 personnel, according to an Nato map, indicating placements of Afghan and foreign troops across Afghanistan.
However, it’s said that more 150,000 Pakistani troops are stationed on the Afghan border.
“I hit the gate and destroyed its ceiling,” said Mohammad Zaman, 23, an Afghan border policeman. I asked him what he needs from his Commander-in-Chief, his response was short: Tank.
A senior border police officer in Goshta, who wished not to be named, said deploying more forces on the frontline means accepting more casualties. He urged his civilian leaders to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels.
A serious war with Pakistan, he said, was not even the last resort.
But in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, Governor Gul Agha Shirzay, says that their position is firm: They would not allow the Pakistanis to rebuild that gate.
“If they [Pakistan] rebuild it [the gate] today, I will destroy it today, if they rebuild it tomorrow, I will destroy it tomorrow. Our position is unchanged,” said Shirzay.
In the past two weeks, President Karzai twice has said that his government does not recognise the Durand Line as the border between the two countries, calling it a separation line imposed on Afghans by the British empire in 1893.
The border clash in Goshta has turned into a serious political debate within the country, provoking a nation-wide support for the Afghan forces standing against Pakistan.
Members of a Kabul-based youth group called Afghanistan Analysis and Awareness (A3) drove to the last outpost in Goshta as an effort to boost up the morale of the border police, presenting them with a national flag as a gift.
Pakistani forces in their base were watching the crowd and the Afghan celebration.
One Afghan border policeman said he would keep the flag and put it where it deserves to be: dozens of kilometers inside the current Pakistan’s territory, where the Afghans believe is the actual border between the two countries.
“We have come here to appreciate your sacrifice for the nation,” said Sami Sadat, 28, a member of A3, who organised the trip, told the policemen.
Mr Sadat, who is a UK Defence Academy graduate, said the Afghan forces need “ground and aerial fire power” if both sides engage in an escalated battle.
“You need three things to fuel such a war: physical component which includes human resource, equipment and fire power; conceptual component which is the knowledge of the war; and the morale,” said Mr Sadat.
He suggested that the army may need to be stationed at the frontline and the border police move to support role if the border becomes a war zone.
Poppy Cultivation Rises in Badakhshan
TOLOnews.com By Aazem Arash 11 May 2013
The local officials in the north of Afghanistan on Saturday said that poppy cultivation has grown in Badakhshan province.
Badakhshan Governor has said that lack of security has caused poppy cultivation to grow in the province, adding that poppy has been cultivated in 11 districts of the province.
“According to our assessments, poppy cultivation has increased in Badakhshan province and this is a phenomenon that has brought the Government, people and youths to challenges.” the Governor Shah Waliullah Adib said.
But the officials in adjoining provinces of Badakhshan say that they will seriously start combat to decrease poppy cultivation in the provinces. The efforts are ongoing to completely destroy the cultivation.
“Our future plans are to seize the drugs and put the drug smugglers in laws ,” Ahmad Faisal Bekzad said.
“We are certainly sure and have plans to start work against poppy,” Baghlan Governor Sultan Mohammad Ebadi said.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry confirms the increase of poppy cultivation in northeastern parts of Afghanistan but stressed that new plans are under way to decrease the cultivation and detain the smugglers in these parts of the country.
“We try to increase the level of arrests in Badakhshan province and target main smugglers and we as well try to put the farmers who are smuggling and encourage others for poppy cultivation on black list,”
the Deputy Minister of Interior for Counter Narcotics Department Baz Mohammad Ahmadi said.
Mr Ahmadi reported that Afghanistan’s drug is smuggled 45% through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan borders , 35% through Pakistan and 30% through Iran border smuggles to abroad.
Finance Minster Must be Summoned: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 11 May 2013
A number of Afghan lawmakers on Saturday's parliament session said that finance minister Omar Zakhailwal must be summoned to parliament.
Parliament administrative board said that two representatives Pir Bakhsh Gardiwal and Samiullah Samim in a telephone contact from abroad have taken back their signatures from impeachment document, calling such a decision against the law and a challenge of impeachment process.
Meanwhile, parliament with majority of votes has decided that after this none of representatives are able to remove their signatures from impeachment documents.
"Impeachment of finance minister is a part of the agenda and the session should not ignore it, and impeachment issue of finance minster must be cleared," said Ghulam Hussain Nasiri parliament member.
"Finance minister's impeachment should be taken seriously and the accusations he [finance minister] has made against the national council must be cleared," Abdul Latif Padram parliament member said.
"According to law and parliament members, the administrative board members have decided that retaking signatures from impeachment documents is insulting to parliament and after this no one can take back his signature from impeachment documents," Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the lower house of parliament said.
It comes after finance minister accused a number of national council member of smuggling.
"A number of parliament members are involved in foods and alcohol smuggling and judicial organisations have to address this," Omar Zakhilwal finance minister said.
Afghan lawmakers due to discussion over finance minister's impeachment have declared explicitly on Saturday session but a number of lawmakers which were present in the session said that there is no legal barriers for finance minster's impeachment.
"Those who have taken back their signatures through phone have been rejected and also ten other signatures were included to the impeachment document of finance minster and there is no legal barriers for finance minster's impeachment," Hassin Fahimi parliament member said.
On the other hand the parliament also discussed interior minister's impeachment. But due to lack of signatures of ten parliament members the impeachment of interior minister is not cleared.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By SAYED JAWAD - 12 May 2013, 10:00 pm Khaama Press
The United States of America on Sunday once again emphasized on the legal status of Durand Line as the border line between Afghanistan and Pakistan despite Afghan president Hamid Karzai insisted that the government of Afghanistan will never accept the legal status of Durand Line.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Sunday told reports in capital Kabul that Washington’s stance on this issue remains unchanged, and is similar to Marc Grossman’s remarks on the legal status of Durand Line.
Former US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, March Grossman earlier insisted that Washington recognize Durand Line as the formal boder between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was later confirmed by US ambassador to Afghanistan during his visit to southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan.
The remarks by US officials were widely criticized by the government of Afghanistan.
Durand Line was established after an agreement in 1893 between Mortimer Durand of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, however the issue of the Durand Line agreement remains unresolved after the formation of Pakistan.
The issue of Durand Line is considered to be one of the main controversial issues between Kabul and Islamabad.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai earlier announced that the government of Pakistan has been putting pressure on Afghanistan in a bid to force the Afghan government to recognize Durand Line as the formal border the between the two nations.
President Karzai also insisted that the government of Afghanistan will never accept the legal status of Durand Line, however deputy secretary of state William Burns called on Kabul and Islamabad to concentrate on improving their bilateral relations.
Top U.S. Diplomat Says Afghan Forces Taking Security Control
May 12, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns says the United States expects that Afghan forces will lead all combat operations in Afghanistan before the end of this year.
Speaking May 11 on a visit to Kabul, Burns said Afghan forces are already in the lead in 90 percent of all combat operations against militants.
He said the plan remains on track to fully transfer all security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, when all international combat forces are expected to have withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Burns met with Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul for the second meeting of the Afghanistan-U.S. Bilateral Commission, which was established in the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama one year ago.
Based on reporting by AP and state.gov
Taliban Free Four Turkish Engineers
May 12, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the Taliban have freed four Turkish engineers in Afghanistan.
Speaking at a rally in Istanbul on May 12, Erdogan said that the freed individuals were among the eight Turkish engineers kidnapped recently in southeastern Afghanistan after their helicopter crashed.
"Thanks to the efforts of MIT [Turkish intelligence], four of [the engineers] were handed over to us and are safe," he said.
The Turkish nationals were on board a Russian helicopter in April when it made a "hard landing" in a remote part of Logar province because of bad weather.
They were taken hostage by the Taliban along with an Afghan and two pilots from Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Security Agreement Crucial for Long-term Security: Rassoul
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 11 May 2013
The Afghan Foreign Minister on Saturday said that finalising Afghanistan-United States security agreement is crucial for long-term security in both Afghanistan and the region.
The foreign minister as well said that continuation of cooperation with International Community should take Afghanistan to constant peace.
The conditions of both countries in signing security agreement are under investigation but the date of signing is still unclear.
“Finalising the bilateral security and defence cooperation agreement between the two countries is crucial for long-term security and stability of Afghanistan and to broader region.” Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said at the Conference.
Meanwhile, the United States Deputy Secretary of State William Joseph Burns said that Security Agreement will be signed between the US and Afghanistan as two independent countries.
“I emphasised here one year ago, As the Afghan People stand up, you will not stand alone. America and many others will stand with you, we have come too far, sacrificed too much and worked too hard to train back now,” the United States Deputy Secretary of State William Joseph Burns said.
Beside security transition, Afghanistan in 2014 will witness political transition process which links to the future security of Afghanistan.
“A successful political transition is a central prerequisite for sustainable security. It is widely important that the election next date be transparent, credible and inclusive this is why we continue to provide electoral assistance, supporting the process,” William Joseph Burns said.
International forces mission against insurgency is since 12 years in Afghanistan is close at the end and expects that their mission will be completed till little months but whatever assures security post 2014 in Afghanistan is security agreement with the US.
Previously, Afghan President Hamed Karzai has said that the United Sates asked to have nine bases after 2014 in Afghanistan but giving immunity is another controversial issue between Afghanistan and the United Sates over signing security agreement.
U.S., Afghanistan Officials Discuss Security Pact
AP By Rahim Faiez 05/11/13
Kabul, Afghanistan - Senior American and Afghan officials held talks Saturday to try to iron out the details of a key pact signed a year ago that defines the future of the United States' commitment to Afghanistan.
The Strategic Partnership Agreement outlines a set of principles and general commitments for relations between Washington and Kabul after 2014, when foreign combat troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan. But there is lingering uncertainty over whether either party will be willing or able to stick to the provisions of the pact, which includes several loopholes for both nations.
The meeting Saturday in Kabul between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul is the second round of negotiations over how to implement the agreement, which was signed in May 2012 by President Barak Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The deal spells out Washington's commitment to Afghanistan over the next 10 years as well as its expectations of Kabul, including free and fair presidential elections next year, pledges to fight corruption, improve efficiency and protect human rights, including women's rights.
Sticking points may include the amount of funds the U.S. provides to Afghan security forces. The two countries are also still squabbling over a separate agreement that would protect from prosecution a residual force of as many as 10,000 U.S. troops who would stay behind after the final withdrawal.
In remarks before Saturday's talks, Burns promised that Washington would stick by Afghanistan and its nascent national security forces after 2014 and the end to the international combat mission.
But the deal allows either country to opt out with a one year's notice, which means that Karzai's successor in next year's presidential elections could scuttle the agreement.
Karzai's election in 2009 was marred by widespread allegations of corruption, vote tampering and election fraud. He denied the charges but the acrimonious aftermath tainted his relationship with the West, which was the most vocal of his critics.
The pact emphasizes a free, fair and transparent election in 2014. Karzai however has been relentless in his criticism of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan's political process, alleging Washington was maneuvering secretly to strengthen his political opposition even though he cannot run for a third term.
Burns denied that Washington was backing any candidate to replace Karzai.
"We are supporting the process and not any particular candidate," he said, adding the elections next year should be "transparent, credible and inclusive."
Burns also repeated Washington's support for the opening of an office for the Taliban in Qatar to provide a venue where Karzai's High Peace Council could meet Taliban representatives to try to find a peaceful end to the 12-year war.
The Taliban have met representatives of about 30 countries, participated in international forums in Tokyo and France, and held backdoor talks with Afghanistan's opposition politicians. But they have steadfastly refused to meet Karzai's representatives including the High Peace Council, calling his government a "puppet."
Karzai recently accused the United States of trying to bring his political opponents and the Taliban together, an allegation the U.S. denied and Burns tried also to dispel in his opening remarks.
"We reaffirm our support for the office in Doha for the purpose of negotiation between the High Peace Council and the Taliban," Burns said.
The U.S. diplomat added that on the security front, Washington is on track to transfer full control of Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces by the end of the year.
There are 350,000 Afghan National Security Forces deployed throughout the country, although there has been criticism that the training, which was rarely more than two months, was inadequate and Karzai has often complained of a lack of military equipment to outfit his forces. NATO officials nonetheless say that this spring, when the weather allows more military activity, is the first of the 12-year war in which Afghan forces have done the majority of the fighting.
The next meeting is scheduled for Washington in October. Rasoul at the last meeting said he expected a conclusion of the talks within eight to 10 months but US is not giving a time frame.
As negotiations lumber along, Afghan analysts said it is difficult to foresee the results of an agreement signed almost one year ago.
"So far we haven't seen any practical steps forward from the Strategic Partnership Agreement," said analyst and former Parliamentarian Abbas Nuyan. "Maybe there are some but if there are we are not aware of it."
"The most important factors ... are security in the country, tensions between Afghanistan and its neighbors, upcoming elections and the fight against corruption, which is a serious issue not just for us but for the international community," Nuyan said.
Afghanistan says nine migrants killed by Iranian border guards
Reuters By Sharafuddin Sharfyar May 11, 2013
Herat, Afghanistan - Iranian guards fired on a large group of Afghan migrants illegally crossing the border overnight, killing at least nine people, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
Hostility to the U.S. role in Afghanistan, regional ambitions and an economy choked by Western sanctions have contributed to a tough Iranian policy against Afghan migrants who flee war and seek work in their more prosperous neighbour.
The Iranian Interior Ministry in Tehran declined to comment. Iranian officials in Kabul could not be reached.
Around 300 Afghan men were trying to make their way from Afghanistan's western Farah province into Iranian territory when the guards opened fire, witnesses and officials said.
"Nine Afghans were killed, but the number may increase," said Abdul Samad Khan, district governor of Lash-e-Joveyn in Farah province near the Iranian border.
Farah police chief Abdul Hakim Angar put the death toll at 10 and eight wounded. Five wounded men lay in hospital beds in the provincial capital Farah, their feet and heads bound in bandages, TV footage showed.
"As soon as they touched Iranian soil the Iranian border police opened fire," said Farah governor's spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhwandai. Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry and its independent Human Rights Commission said they were looking into the reports of deaths.
As NATO and its foreign partners prepare to end their combat role in Afghanistan by the end of next year, attention is turning towards its neighbours and what role they could play in helping build the country's future.
The 2.4 million Afghans living in Iran - 1 million of whom are allowed to live there legally as refugees - have been a thorn in the side of Afghan-Iranian relations. Last year Tehran threatened to expel them if Kabul signed a strategic security pact with Washington. That deal was struck.
Hundreds of Afghans cross the 1,000-km (620-mile) border daily, paying sums of about $700 (455.55 pounds) to smugglers to ferry them across. Iranian security forces rarely kill them.
Last year, Afghanistan said at least 23 Afghan migrants were killed by Iranian border police.
Afghan district prosecutor dies in bombing in Helmand
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, May 12 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan district prosecutor was killed in bomb attack in the country's southern province of Helmand on Sunday morning, said a provincial government spokesman.
"The Marja district prosecutor, Mohammad Lal Hakimi, was travelling to office at around 7 a.m. local time Sunday but his car was struck by a roadside bombing in the district, killing him on the spot," spokesman Omar Zhwak told Xinhua.
He blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack in the province 555 km south of capital Kabul.
The armed outfit which launched an annual rebel offensive late last month has said anyone working for government and the NATO-led troops are legitimate target.
Earlier this month, the provincial Peace Council chief and a local elder were shot dead by militants in Helmand.
A total of 2,754 civilians were killed and 4,805 injured in conflict-related violence in the war-hit country last year, according to a UN report released in February in Kabul.
Out of total casualties last year, up to 698 civilians were killed and 379 were wounded in targeted killings across the country.
What the Frontier of Afghanistan Tells Us About the War
Carter Malkasian, one of the American government's top experts on Afghanistan, spent two years with locals in one remote district, resulting in his new book, War Comes to Garmser. John Kael Weston speaks to Malkasian about what he learned from a dusty corner of the country.
The Daily Beast By John Kael Weston May 11, 2013
Carter Malkasian spent almost two years as a political officer with the State Department in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. He is considered one of the U.S. government’s top experts on Afghanistan and counterinsurgency. His new book, War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier, stands out for its in-depth analysis of one district, Garmser, located on the east bank of the Helmand River. Perhaps the rarest quality of his writing is the level of detail he provides into Afghans—their lives, stories, and sacrifices. Their perspective is an aspect of the current wave of war writing that’s been lacking, as has been the case with Iraqi voices. Many in the U.S. have indicted Afghans for being “corrupt” or “lazy” or “untrustworthy” and so on. Malkasian helps correct that superficial image.
I have known Malkasian for years, since we first met outside Fallujah in 2004. I spoke with him earlier this month in Washington, D.C., before he headed off to Kabul to work with Marine General Joseph Dunford, the top commander in Afghanistan.
What’s your inspiration for the book?
I spent 18 months, in two separate deployments, in Al Anbar, Iraq. When I got back, I always meant to write a book but never found the time. I wrote several short articles and a few research studies but nothing more. It is one of my biggest regrets. The memories faded. The details went grey. When I got home from Afghanistan, I was determined to take the time to write something.
The book follows in the footsteps of Jeffrey Race's War Comes to Long An. Fluent in Vietnamese, Race told the story of a single province in Vietnam over a twenty-year period. His work offered a window into the ground truth of the Vietnam War. War Comes to Long An has a bright red cover, printed by the University of California Press. If that doesn’t scream radicalism, I don’t know what does. That book—tattered and worn—has found its way into my backpack in far off places for the past six years. I hope that War Comes to Garmser can also give the broad view of a small place, and maybe offer similar kinds of insights.
Why did you spend two years in Garmser, and how does this little district fit into the larger strategic picture?
War Comes to Garmser tells the story of the district of Garmser from the 1960s to 2012. Garmser has about 150,000 people, mostly living along the Helmand River in a fertile strip no more than 10 kilometers wide and 7 kilometers long. It is tribal, Islamic, and hot—Garmser means "hot place" in Persian. Pakistan is just a five-hour drive across open desert. For over thirty years, Garmser has been part of larger conflicts that have engulfed Afghanistan as a whole: first, the jihad and the ensuing civil war, then the Taliban, and finally the British and American intervention.
Garmser is the frontline of our war in Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2010, the district was almost entirely under Taliban control; the scene of some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan. It was here in 2006 that the Afghan government and the coalition suffered one of their most resounding defeats, as the Taliban launched their offensive that captured most of Helmand and Kandahar. After that, Great Britain and the United States put forth tremendous effort to reclaim Garmser, replete with professional governance programs, over $21 million in reconstruction projects, and over a thousand new Afghan soldiers and police. Garmser was one of the targets of the surge. One thousand Marines were sent there. The last chapters of the book talk about to what extent the surge succeeded and how things must now lie in the hands of the Afghans. For all these reasons, I think Garmser is a decent window into the war as a whole.
Tell us more about the Afghans. Unlike other books on this war, you place Afghans front and center. That's unique.
I have a hard time not admiring the Afghans. They face challenges unknown to Americans, even to our fighting forces. Afghans face years of war. They do not get to go back to a home in a peaceful country. They get no pension. Every year they face violence and death and have to do something to keep their families alive. In this environment, the resilience of the Afghans amazes me. So many are willing to put their lives on the line to bring some kind of peace to their country, losing family members and suffering wounds in the process.
One day, I was sitting at the long Pashtun wake for Abdul Hadi, a brave, intelligent, fallen policeman, whose uncle had been fighting the Taliban for years. The uncle reassured me that the losses came with the territory: “If you work for the government for 20 years, you will lose family members.” I know what I am saying does not fit conventional wisdom, which tends to paint Afghans as recalcitrant, lazy, and hopelessly corrupt. But that is not the whole picture. What I remember are Afghans who wanted a better future. In spite of all the violence, they carried on, year after year, working to build some kind of order out of war. Their experience was not one of futility but of fortitude.
Garmser is the frontline of our war in Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2010, the district was almost entirely under Taliban control; the scene of some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan.
Describe the case the Taliban had made in Garmser before coalition forces’ arrival in 2006, and the strengths they had?
I remember speaking with Taliban mullahs; black beards, white turbans, Arabic inflection to their Pashto. Many were good men, trying to help their community. The Taliban controlled Garmser from 1994 to 2001 and then again from 2006 to 2008. During those times, they tried to bring fair Islamic justice to the people and give land to the poorer tribes. Their devotion to Islam especially enhanced their credibility. One former Taliban judge and well-educated Islamic scholar told me: “The people had many problems...I believed the Taliban regime could bring them peace. The local villagers asked me to become a judge with the Taliban. I knew that the Taliban fighters could not do this work. So I asked [the Taliban district governor] if I could become a judge.” Above all, the Taliban brought order. The Taliban were organized and disciplined. Unlike the mujahedin or the government, they did not fight among themselves.
The people of Garmser today remember these things, but they also remember that today's government has brought schools and healthcare and just a little freedom for women. I do not think most Pashtuns want to see the Taliban return to power. Nor do I think most Pashtuns see the Taliban as hated enemies. I think that they would prefer peaceful reconciliation to years of war.
What about the Marines? As a civilian working with them every day, what were your impressions?
The Marines were the necessary condition for whatever success occurred in Garmser. Their patrolling, their bravery, their sacrifice gave the Afghans breathing room to take charge of their own affairs. Ahmed Shah, a veteran sergeant and former mujahedin who has fought the Taliban for 15 years, said: “The Marines are my brothers. They are good men. They fight like no one else ever before.” All my proceeds from the book will go to the Semper Fi Fund for Wounded Warriors, a charity that helps wounded Marines and their families. It is an easy thing to do but in no way pays my debt to the sergeants, lance corporals, and privates who watched my back on patrol after patrol in the fields and villages and bazaars of Garmser.
Civilians too have sacrificed and worked hard for Afghanistan. It was my time on PRTs [provincial reconstruction teams] and in Anbar that made me want to go to Garmser in the first place. The dedication of State Department diplomats such as Marlin Hardinger—on his fourth year in Lashkar Gah—is breathtaking. The work of many, sometimes Pashto-speakers, toiling away for years in dangerous places such as Asadabad, Musa Qala, Sangin—and heart-breakingly in Qalat—has too-often gone un-noticed in America. (Anne Smedinghoff, a U.S. diplomat, was killed in Qalat.)
What will happen over the next year as troops draw down? What's Garmser's future?
Last May, the Marines all but left. Since then, the Afghans have held and are holding today. Knock on wood. Everyday I nervously watch Garmser to see what will happen. Yet Pakistan is close. Garmser’s final reckoning still lies ahead, as does Afghanistan’s.
John Kael Weston spent seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2003-2010, with the State Department. He is writing a book on his time in both wars (Knopf, 2014).
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com
If Election Can Be Held in Pakistan, It Must Be Possible in Afghanistan: Analyst
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat 11 May 2013
A number of Afghan analysts on Saturday said that considering security threats in Pakistan, holding of election is also possible in Afghanistan and the government of Afghanistan should not use insecurity as a pretext not to hold elections.
The analysts add that however there are some common views from Pakistan's politicians and political parties against Afghanistan that Afghanistan is a weak country but a peaceful election is in favour of Afghanistan.
Pakistan's general election was held amid tight security measures on Tuesday. It is said that for providing security for this election more than 600,00 security forces have been stationed in different parts of the country.
Previously, offices of a number of candidates have not been safe against attacks.
But in Afghanistan a number of analysts have different opinions regarding holding of Pakistan's elections. The analysts say that considering Pakistan's security threats if the Afghan government has a strong will, holding of elections is possible in Afghanistan.
"Insecurity is a pretext for our government. If the government has a strong will for holding elections there is no problem and you see that the government is even endeavouring to delay approving the election law and Pakistan's parliamentary election is also effective for Afghanistan's situation," Mahmood Saiqal, international relations analyst told TOLOnews.
These analysts say that considering Pakistan's past policies against Afghanistan, every winning party in Pakistan doesn't want to see an independent and powerful neighbour.
"Supporting of Pakistan's civil government is also in favour of Afghanistan because It is better that the winning party of the election should support Pakistan's civil government because Pakistan's military governments always reached their goals through violence and extremism which has also affected Afghanistan," Nader Naderi member of Afghanistan research and evaluation unit told TOLOnews.
This one-day election is held while this country is witnessing termination of the first elected non-military government and handover of power to another government.
The people of Pakistan are hopeful that this election could put an end to massive corruption, power struggle and bankrupt economy of the country.
Internal Banks Dollar Accounts to Be Closed by German Commerce Bank
TOLOnews.com By Zabiulah Jahanmal 11 May 2013
Afghanistan Central Bank on Saturday said that in two months all country's internal banks' dollar accounts will be closed by German Commerce Bank.
Central bank officials said that representatives of the Commerce Bank in a joint session with a number of Afghan Central Bank officials on Saturday has claimed that after the month of July 2013, the country's dollar deals will not be performed by this bank.
Meanwhile, officials of the Private Union Banks raised concern over this decision of Commerce Bank and said that this decision will have negative impacts on Banks' dealings.
However, it is said that lack of implementation of prohibition of money laundering law and also lack of necessary programmes for preventing of supporting of terrorism are the motives that Commerce Bank the biggest dealing mediator between Afghanistan and Pakistan wants to close all dollar accounts of Afghanistan's banks, the central bank says that lack of professional capacity in Afghanistan's banks and failure in Bank accounts from a number of country's banks have caused that the Commerce Bank take the decision.
"Another reason that they submit is that they are under pressure by their American dealers, because every bank dealing that takes place should be cleared in the US.
On the other hand, it is said that officials of the German Commerce Bank, for arranging bank dealings to Europe and US has asked the officials of this bank to contract with other credible banks of the world but the officials of Union Private Bank considering the difficult condition of the world's credible banks calls this solution impossible in the short term," Noorlullah Dilawari head of Afghanistan Central Bank told TOLOnews.
"This measure is time consuming and it is impossible to make a connection with international credible banks in two or three months, On the other hand, a number of economic analysts call this immediate action of Commerce bank a pressure on country's banking system and say that the government should disclose all motives of this problem,"
Khalil Sediq head of Afghanistan Union of Private Banks told TOLOnews.
"The president and his team should respond to us and clarify what the reason is that they were previously dealing with us and now we are under pressure," Azarakhsh Hafezi head of international relations of Chambers of Commerce and Industries told TOLOnews.
German Commerce Bank is one of the credible banks of the world that has been facilitating bank dealings of Afghanistan's banks to Europe and US in the last 11 years. According to banking analysts, with closing of dollar accounts of Afghanistan's bank in this bank a major problem will be created but the central bank says that banks of the country should convince credible banks to solve their problem.
Ex-Premier Is Set to Regain Power in Pakistan Vote
New York Times By DECLAN WALSH May 11, 2013
LAHORE, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, once a political exile deposed by the military, returned to the cusp of power on Saturday, taking a commanding lead in a parliamentary election in which Pakistanis braved Taliban intimidation to cast ballots with historic prospects for the country’s democracy.
Record turnout was reported in several cities, incited by an energized political campaign dominated by the battle between Mr. Sharif and Imran Khan, the former cricket star whose appeal as an anticorruption crusader had many predicting he could play a kingmaker role.
But even with just partial returns in early Sunday, Mr. Sharif’s party appeared to have secured enough seats to form a government easily. His supporters ran cheering through the streets of Lahore, honking horns and, in some instances, firing bursts of celebratory gunshots.
While the raucous election highlighted the vibrancy of Pakistani politics, it also drew attention to the gaping holes in the country’s democracy.
Threats by the Taliban to disrupt voting were borne out in attacks across the country that left at least 21 people dead, including at least 11 in a bombing in Karachi and others in Baluchistan Province, where turnout greatly suffered.
Accusations of widespread vote irregularities in Karachi, the nation’s largest metropolis, led to the invalidation of results from dozens of polling places, officials said. Final results are likely to wait for days.
Even if Mr. Sharif faces no obstacles in forming a government, he will have to deal with a stalled economy, profound infrastructure failure and grave threats from an emboldened Taliban insurgency. Furthermore, he has promised to rein in American influence in Pakistan, leaving questions about the countries’ often-stormy relationship.
The election was Pakistan’s 10th since 1970 but the first in which a civilian government that has served a full five-year term is poised to peacefully hand power to another elected government.
Unlike previous elections, in which the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate was widely accused of vote manipulation and intimidation, this one offered little evidence of involvement by the military, which has ruled Pakistan directly for more than half its 66-year history.
Instead, the country was gripped by election fever, most of it driven by the contest between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Khan. In the final days of campaigning, the momentum appeared to be with Mr. Khan, who electrified voters with a series of mass rallies that tapped into a deep vein of support among young and middle-class Pakistanis in urban areas.
His ratings rose further after he fell nearly 15 feet to the ground at a rally in Lahore on Tuesday, badly injuring his back but winning widespread public sympathy.
But as the results flooded in late Saturday, and television projections gave Mr. Sharif up to 119 of the 268 elected seats on offer, against just 33 for Mr. Khan, promises of a revolutionary “tsunami” led by the former cricket player appeared to have vanished.
That result signaled a victory of sorts for old-style dynastic politics: the Sharifs have dominated Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, since the 1980s, and have cultivated voters for the past five years through development projects financed by the provincial government, which they controlled.
The other loser was President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which led the last government but now seems destined to the opposition benches.
Mr. Khan, however, was poised to capture a valuable consolation prize, one with potentially sharp implications for American policy: control of the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the Afghan border.
During his campaign rallies, Mr. Khan stridently said he would end C.I.A. drone strikes in the tribal belt, by ordering the Pakistani military to shoot down American aircraft if necessary. And he has said he believes that the Pakistani state should negotiate with Taliban insurgents, not fight them.
Still, it is Mr. Sharif who is likely to have the greatest impact on relations with the United States. A nationalist by inclination, Mr. Sharif, while publicly amenable to reaching out to the Americans, has also hinted that he was open to negotiating with Taliban rebels in the northwest — a stance that would greatly concern American officials as they try to withdraw from an Afghan war next door that has featured many cross-border attacks by those insurgents.
A conservative and a steel baron, Mr. Sharif was mentored in his political career by a military dictator, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, in the mid-1980s. But he turned against the generals after his ouster at the hands of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999, which resulted in a long exile in Saudi Arabia. Since then, many military men have viewed Mr. Sharif with suspicion.
He first came to American attention during Pakistan’s tense confrontation with India in 1999, when the possibility of a nuclear conflict was averted thanks to mediation by President Bill Clinton.
The election evoked a rare sense of enthusiasm for politics in Pakistan. About 4,670 candidates fought for 272 directly elected seats in Parliament, while almost 11,000 people battled for the four provincial assemblies. Aside from more traditional politicians, they included astrologers, transgender candidates, former models and the first female candidates in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.
Also running were dozens of candidates from Sunni sectarian groups, some with links to violent attacks on minority Shiites.
Mr. Khan’s campaign, in particular, had a carnival atmosphere because it drew so many young urban residents into politics, many of them first-time voters. In the wealthier neighborhoods of Lahore on Saturday, supporters danced in the streets and waved giant flags bearing Mr. Khan’s image.
But the sense of a vibrant, if flawed, democracy was tempered by Taliban attacks throughout the campaigning. The militant movement’s ability to derail campaigning, particularly in the mountainous northwest, was taken as a signal that it has evolved beyond its nihilistic guerrilla roots and has become a powerful political insurgency bent on upending Western-style democracy in Pakistan.
Campaigning was further marred Thursday when Ali Haider Gilani, 27, the son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was shot and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen as he addressed a campaign event in the city of Multan, in southern Punjab Province.
Two guards who tried to protect Mr. Gilani were shot to death; the candidate was reportedly bleeding from a gunshot wound as he was dragged into a vehicle and driven away.
In a statement on Friday, the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud ordered his commanders to attack the “infidel system” of democracy, warning that teams of suicide bombers would hit targets across the country.
At least 21 people were reported killed in attacks across Pakistan on Saturday, among them a gunfight and an attack on a polling place in the western province of Baluchistan and two explosions in the northwest, including in Peshawar, that injured several people. The deadly bombing in Karachi appeared to have been directed at a candidate from the Awami National Party, one of three secular-leaning parties that have borne the brunt of Taliban attacks that have killed at least 125 people in the last month.
The police established new checkpoints, and military helicopters patrolled the skies in Peshawar, the city that has been worst hit by militant violence over the years. Hospital workers were put on alert while billboards across the city asked residents to watch for suspicious activity.
After a slow start to voting, large numbers of voters emerged by midmorning, including many women. About 300 women in burqas stood in line outside the Lady Griffith High School, where policemen warned photographers not to take pictures of the women.
One of the women, Saba Iqbal, 35, a doctor, said she was going to vote for Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
“I never voted before,” she said, “but this time I want to be part of Imran Khan’s change.”
Mr. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party found itself badly overshadowed in the race after a lackluster and leaderless campaign.
The party developed a poor reputation for governance as the economy faltered in recent years and ministers failed to reverse crippling power shortages. Among the party kingpins who lost their seats on Saturday was Raja Pervez Ashraf, the previous prime minister, who suffered a crushing loss to a candidate from Mr. Sharif’s party.
There were also signs of irregularities like those that tainted some past votes. At least one party, Jamaat-e-Islami, withdrew its candidates from Karachi and Hyderabad, protesting that the election was being rigged at various polling places.
Officials blamed the Muttahida Quami Movement party, which has traditionally dominated Karachi. A senior official with the Jamaat called for a peaceful strike on Monday to protest reported vote-rigging in the city.
Prominent officials of both Mr. Zardari’s and Mr. Sharif’s parties lodged similar accusations, saying they would reject some results in Karachi.
After polls closed, the Election Commission of Pakistan said that its staff had been threatened in the city, but that the voting had generally gone well.
Early on Sunday, The New York Times bureau chief in Pakistan, Declan Walsh, prepared to leave the country three days after receiving a notice from the Interior Ministry that his visa had been canceled.
Mr. Walsh, who covered the elections on Saturday from Lahore, was accompanied to the airport by plainclothes intelligence agents, he said in a telephone interview. The men had closely paced him for hours.
He received the notice early Thursday morning from police officers outside his home in Islamabad. The order read in full: “It is informed that your visa is hereby canceled in view of your undesirable activities. You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours.”
No further details of any wrongdoing were given, and Pakistani officials did not respond to repeated requests for more information.
The Times’s executive editor, Jill Abramson, filed a formal complaint with the Pakistani government on Friday, seeking Mr. Walsh’s reinstatement and noting that his expulsion struck a troubling note for a country celebrating an important milestone as a democracy.
“The expulsion of an established journalist, on the day of the voting, contradicts that impression,” she wrote.
Reporting was contributed by Salman Masood from Gujar Khan, Pakistan; Zia ur-Rehman from Karachi, Pakistan; Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Peshawar, Pakistan; and Douglas Schorzman from New York.
Afghan Forces on Standby in Pakistan Border, Urging Talks First
TOLOnews.com By Lotfullah Najafizada 11 May 2013
After a second clash in a week on the Durand Line, the Afghan government has deployed additional forces in Goshta district of the eastern Nangarhar province, putting hundreds of border police backed by army and quick reaction force on standby to prevent the Pakistani military from rebuilding a gate ‘on the Afghan soil’.
The Afghan forces have engaged in fierce battles with the Pakistani forces twice in the past ten days, killing at least one Afghan border police and wounding three others. There are unconfirmed reports about Pakistani casualties too.
“We sent a letter to the Pakistanis asking them to stop building the gate, but they responded with missiles,” said the commander of an Afghan Border Police (ABP) unit in Goshta, Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Basir Kamawal, pointing at three Afghan border outposts as the sign of an intense battle. The towers have been severely damaged.
“More than a thousand rockets and other artilleries were fired on us. It was a serious battle. They have now brought tanks to threaten us.”
The Pakistani government said that their forces came under unprovoked fire from the Afghan side. The Afghans have disputed the account.
Pakistan recently started building a gate near a 10-year old border base. President Karzai said the gate and the base was on the Afghan soil. It has been questioned why a Pakistani military base built in Goshta was not as provocative as the gate for Afghanistan.
The Afghan government now says that both the gate and the base are on the Afghan territory, however, the target for the Afghan forces in the last two battles was to only destroy the gate, just more than 500 meters away from the Afghan post.
In the outpost where the battle took place, ABP has three towers, while the Pakistanis have a base with a dozen visible watch towers around the area.
Nearly 250 border police are stationed in Goshta. The Afghan National Army (ANA) are seen in considerable numbers down the hill, where they act as a standby force equipped with short-range missiles, ammunition and medical support.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior believes they have sufficient forces along the Durand Line. The ANA has three of its five corps headquartered in the eastern and southern provinces bordering Pakistan, with nearly 80,000 personnel, according to an Nato map, indicating placements of Afghan and foreign troops across Afghanistan.
However, it’s said that more 150,000 Pakistani troops are stationed on the Afghan border.
“I hit the gate and destroyed its ceiling,” said Mohammad Zaman, 23, an Afghan border policeman. I asked him what he needs from his Commander-in-Chief, his response was short: Tank.
A senior border police officer in Goshta, who wished not to be named, said deploying more forces on the frontline means accepting more casualties. He urged his civilian leaders to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels.
A serious war with Pakistan, he said, was not even the last resort.
But in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, Governor Gul Agha Shirzay, says that their position is firm: They would not allow the Pakistanis to rebuild that gate.
“If they [Pakistan] rebuild it [the gate] today, I will destroy it today, if they rebuild it tomorrow, I will destroy it tomorrow. Our position is unchanged,” said Shirzay.
In the past two weeks, President Karzai twice has said that his government does not recognise the Durand Line as the border between the two countries, calling it a separation line imposed on Afghans by the British empire in 1893.
The border clash in Goshta has turned into a serious political debate within the country, provoking a nation-wide support for the Afghan forces standing against Pakistan.
Members of a Kabul-based youth group called Afghanistan Analysis and Awareness (A3) drove to the last outpost in Goshta as an effort to boost up the morale of the border police, presenting them with a national flag as a gift.
Pakistani forces in their base were watching the crowd and the Afghan celebration.
One Afghan border policeman said he would keep the flag and put it where it deserves to be: dozens of kilometers inside the current Pakistan’s territory, where the Afghans believe is the actual border between the two countries.
“We have come here to appreciate your sacrifice for the nation,” said Sami Sadat, 28, a member of A3, who organised the trip, told the policemen.
Mr Sadat, who is a UK Defence Academy graduate, said the Afghan forces need “ground and aerial fire power” if both sides engage in an escalated battle.
“You need three things to fuel such a war: physical component which includes human resource, equipment and fire power; conceptual component which is the knowledge of the war; and the morale,” said Mr Sadat.
He suggested that the army may need to be stationed at the frontline and the border police move to support role if the border becomes a war zone.
Poppy Cultivation Rises in Badakhshan
TOLOnews.com By Aazem Arash 11 May 2013
The local officials in the north of Afghanistan on Saturday said that poppy cultivation has grown in Badakhshan province.
Badakhshan Governor has said that lack of security has caused poppy cultivation to grow in the province, adding that poppy has been cultivated in 11 districts of the province.
“According to our assessments, poppy cultivation has increased in Badakhshan province and this is a phenomenon that has brought the Government, people and youths to challenges.” the Governor Shah Waliullah Adib said.
But the officials in adjoining provinces of Badakhshan say that they will seriously start combat to decrease poppy cultivation in the provinces. The efforts are ongoing to completely destroy the cultivation.
“Our future plans are to seize the drugs and put the drug smugglers in laws ,” Ahmad Faisal Bekzad said.
“We are certainly sure and have plans to start work against poppy,” Baghlan Governor Sultan Mohammad Ebadi said.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry confirms the increase of poppy cultivation in northeastern parts of Afghanistan but stressed that new plans are under way to decrease the cultivation and detain the smugglers in these parts of the country.
“We try to increase the level of arrests in Badakhshan province and target main smugglers and we as well try to put the farmers who are smuggling and encourage others for poppy cultivation on black list,”
the Deputy Minister of Interior for Counter Narcotics Department Baz Mohammad Ahmadi said.
Mr Ahmadi reported that Afghanistan’s drug is smuggled 45% through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan borders , 35% through Pakistan and 30% through Iran border smuggles to abroad.
Finance Minster Must be Summoned: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 11 May 2013
A number of Afghan lawmakers on Saturday's parliament session said that finance minister Omar Zakhailwal must be summoned to parliament.
Parliament administrative board said that two representatives Pir Bakhsh Gardiwal and Samiullah Samim in a telephone contact from abroad have taken back their signatures from impeachment document, calling such a decision against the law and a challenge of impeachment process.
Meanwhile, parliament with majority of votes has decided that after this none of representatives are able to remove their signatures from impeachment documents.
"Impeachment of finance minister is a part of the agenda and the session should not ignore it, and impeachment issue of finance minster must be cleared," said Ghulam Hussain Nasiri parliament member.
"Finance minister's impeachment should be taken seriously and the accusations he [finance minister] has made against the national council must be cleared," Abdul Latif Padram parliament member said.
"According to law and parliament members, the administrative board members have decided that retaking signatures from impeachment documents is insulting to parliament and after this no one can take back his signature from impeachment documents," Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the lower house of parliament said.
It comes after finance minister accused a number of national council member of smuggling.
"A number of parliament members are involved in foods and alcohol smuggling and judicial organisations have to address this," Omar Zakhilwal finance minister said.
Afghan lawmakers due to discussion over finance minister's impeachment have declared explicitly on Saturday session but a number of lawmakers which were present in the session said that there is no legal barriers for finance minster's impeachment.
"Those who have taken back their signatures through phone have been rejected and also ten other signatures were included to the impeachment document of finance minster and there is no legal barriers for finance minster's impeachment," Hassin Fahimi parliament member said.
On the other hand the parliament also discussed interior minister's impeachment. But due to lack of signatures of ten parliament members the impeachment of interior minister is not cleared.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com