Afghanistan News January 18, 2004

January 18, 2004

Karzai says Afghan govt does utmost for safe vote
Reuters 01/17/2004
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday said his government and the international community would do their utmost to ensure Afghans can vote freely and without fear in ground-breaking elections in June.

A spate of deadly attacks has cast fresh doubts over Afghanistan's ambitious plan to hold its first ever free presidential poll, and only 350,000 of an estimated 10 million voters have so far registered to participate.

The registration process has been moving slowly because the United Nations considers vast areas of the country too dangerous to work in. U.N. officials have said June looks an impossible target unless security improves significantly.

But Karzai, who is backed by Washington and is considered the favourite to win the poll, has vowed to hold the election on schedule and officials said he would register himself to vote on Sunday.

"The government and the international community will do their utmost to pave the ground so that people can vote freely and without fear," Karzai told reporters at his presidential palace.

He said registering to vote was of "paramount importance for the national life". "The more people register, the better they can create a favourite, legitimate government," Karzai said. "Therefore, the process of voter registration is necessary for the evolution of Afghanistan's legitimate regime and my demand from them is to vote."

Voter registration comes as war-shattered Afghanistan has experienced its worst period of violence since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. On Thursday, outgoing U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the main architect of the Bonn accord that brought Karzai's coalition government to power, criticised the security apparatus of his administration for moving too slowly to reform itself.

He told the U.N. Security Council there was also a need to address the concerns of the Pashtun clan, the country's largest and its traditional rulers, who feel under-represented in government since the fall of the largely Pashtun Taliban.

While Karzai is himself a Pashtun, his administration is dominated by the Northern Alliance, which is made up mainly of ethnic minorities who helped overthrow the Taliban.

Asked about rumours that he might be preparing to make changes in his cabinet, Karzai said none of the key ministries or institutions such as foreign affairs, finance or the central bank were currently on the list for reform. "We bring reforms where we deem it necessary," he said without elaborating.

Afghan leader Karzai defends women singers
Reuters 01/17/2004
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai argued on Saturday it should be left to his government to decide if women could sing on television, a controversy that has become an early test of Afghanistan's new constitution.

In a setback for reformists, state-run Kabul Television reimposed this week a long-running ban on women singers, after the Supreme Court protested against its showing of a performance by Parasto, a popular woman singer who now lives in the West.

The Culture and Information Minister argued showing women singers on television was in line with the new Afghan constitution as it gives equal rights to women. But the court, which is dominated by religious conservatives, protested that the ending of the ban was in conflict with the new constitution's provision that no law can conflict with Islam.

"Afghanistan has had women singing in the Afghan Radio and Television for now over 50-60 years," Karzai told reporters, when asked his view of the row. "This is a policy that the ministry of information decides," he said, adding that Afghanistan needed to align itself with today's social environment.

The archive performance of Parasto showed her singing without a head scarf. The ban on women singers had been in force for nearly 12 years since the Soviet-backed communist regime fell and a government of mujahideen, or holy warriors, grabbed power.

In 1996, the even more conservative Taliban overthrew the mujahideen and banned all television as part of its strict imposition of Sharia, or traditional Islamic law. The controversy highlights a continuing battle between reformists and conservatives who oppose the liberalisation seen since the Taliban's overthrow by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

It comes weeks after the replacement of the conservative head of Kabul Radio and Television, a key official of the Northern Alliance faction that is the backbone of Karzai's government and is mainly composed of mujahideen groups. Asked about Karzai's comments, Deputy Chief Justice Fazl Ahmad Manawi told Reuters: "We have nothing to say."

Musharraf calls for holy war against extremism amid opposition protest
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has urged lawmakers and his compatriots to launch a holy war to eradicate extremism from Pakistani society. "I appeal to you and the people of Pakistan to wage a jihad (holy war) against extremism," he told parliament on Saturday in his first address to a joint sitting of the national assembly and senate since his 1999 coup.

Opposition legislators from former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N tried to shout Musharraf down while waving photos of their exiled leaders and placards denouncing the military's hold on power.

"Down with the dictator", "Stranger in the house", "Politics of bullet and baton will not be allowed" and "Rule of generals, colonels not accepted," the opposition MPs chanted. Earlier, MPs of the Islamist opposition alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) walked out shortly after the president started speaking.

Ignoring the uproar, Musharraf said Pakistan was at a crossroads, facing accusations from the international community. Musharraf said it was alleged that Pakistan's tribal territory was a source of terrorism in Afghanistan and there were also accusations of terrorism on the Line of Control in Kashmir.

He said Pakistan's image in the world was that of an extremist and intolerant society. "We have to take important decisions to correct the image, otherwise our future generations will have to pay a very heavy price for our neglect and inaction," he said.

"We will have to take Pakistan out of the negative perceptions and take the country to the road of progress." He said Pakistan would have to stamp out any terrorist activity from its tribal areas with full force.

The only way to counter allegations of terrorism in Kashmir was to move towards a peaceful and just settlement of the Kashmir dispute, he said. "The progress that has been made in that direction has to be taken forward with sincerity and in keeping with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir for achieving a solution," Musharraf said.

He was alluding to his landmark agreement with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee earlier this month to resume dialogue on all issues, including the decades old dispute over Kasmir.

The agreement came after Musharraf assured Vajpayee that he would not allow his country to be used for terrorist activities against India or any other country. Musharraf told the parliamentarians Pakistan had to convince the world that as a responsible nuclear power it would not allow any proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"We are a nuclear and missile power. Not only do we have to maintain this capacity but we have to strengthen it further. We cannot neglect this important aspect for the sake of Pakistan's solidarity and survival." Pakistan has faced accusations that some of its scientists were involved in handing nuclear technology over to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

The government has denied it leaked nuclear secrets and is conducting an investigation into allegations against some scientists whose names have not been officially disclosed. Musharraf, a key US ally in the war on terror, has led a tough campaign against extremism and terrorism that triggered a backlash from Islamic militants blamed for three failed attempts on his life.

In 2002 militants parked an explosive laden car on his route in the southern port city of Karachi but the detonation failed and culprits were arrested. Two more assassination bids came last month.

On December 14 a bridge was blown up moments after Musharraf's car drove over it. The second attack came on Christmas Day when two suicide bombers rammed explosives-laden cars into the presidential motorcade, killing 15 people while Musharraf escaped unhurt.

31 Afghans arrested
DAWN
QUETTA, Jan 16: Police arrested 31 illegal Afghan nationals, including students of a seminary from Kuchlak, a small town of Quetta district, on Friday. "Yes, we have arrested 31 Afghan nationals who were illegally living in a hotel and seminary in Kuchlak in the wee hours on Friday," a police official Mumtaz Khan said here on Friday.

A police contingent, along with other law-enforcement agencies, conducted the raid at three seminaries in Kuchlak and arrested 28 Afghans. Three other Afghans were taken into custody from a small hotel.

Out of 31 held Afghans, 28 were studying in three seminaries being run by JUI members in different villages of Kuchlak, the police said, adding they were all illegally living in the country. "All the 31 arrested Afghans were booked under the Foreigners' Act as they were living in Pakistan without legal documents," police officials of the Kuchlak Police Station said.

In a related development, the FIA on Friday arrested three Afghans and an Indian national who were trying to cross into Iran but were forced back by Iranian border security officials.

Levies personnel, after taking them into custody, handed them over to the FIA for further investigation. JUI-F leader and National Assembly Member from Quetta district Maulana Noor Mohammad has condemned the arrest of the students and demanded their immediate release.

30 Afghans detained for Taliban link
QUETTA: Police said on Friday they had detained more than 30 Afghans, including several students of Islamic schools, for suspected links with Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime.

Police official Mumtaz Khan told Reuters 28 Afghan pupils were arrested on Friday in a pre-dawn raid on three religious schools, or madrassahs, in Kuchlak, a town in the southwestern province of Baluchistan on the border with Afghanistan.

He described them as “illegal immigrants” and said three other Afghans had been detained in the same area. “We have handed them over to the concerned security agencies to investigate whether they have links with the Taliban,” he said. —Reuters

Headline: Rustam hopes earlier release of all Pakistani prisoners from Afghan jails
Detail Story
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Thursday expressed the hope that entire lot of Pakistani prisoners will Soon be released from Afghan jails following hectic government efforts.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullha Jamali has made special request to Afghan Government for the release of Pakistani prisoners and 49 people have been Released today (Thursday), the Ambassador told Geo Television.

These prisoners hailing from all the four provinces of Pakistan are set To leave for Peshawar he said adding from where they will be let free after Initial investigations. He said the release of these prisoners is an outcome of the efforts Being made by the government of Pakistan for the last two years at various Levels.

To a question he said, there are 50-60 Pakistani prisoners in Kabul jail while in Shabarghan (Northern Afghanistan) the number is around 500. Government of Pakistan is in constant contact with Afghan authorities for the release of these prisoners and they will be released very soon, he added.

To another question he said, the Afghan prisoners in Pakistani jails have a different status than those of Pakistanis in Afghan prisons. Explaining he said, Afghans are living in Pakistan over the past 20-25 years and most of the people behind bars are involved in various crimes.

They are being treated as Pakistani prisoners, he added. However there are some Afghan prisoners in Pakistan who were booked for not possessing valid traveling documents for being in the country. Pakistan government has agreed to release all such prisoners, he added. He said 150 such prisoners were released before the recent visit of Prime Minister Jamali to Kabul.

In other news:
Ambassador of Pakistan to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand has said the visit of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to Afghanistan was part of the efforts which the Pakistan government has been making to establish very close and cordial ties between two countries.

Talking to BBC he said the Pak-Afghan ties not only have political objectives, but they are also in the interest of the people of both the countries.

He said, "We should keep one thing in mind that we have no other option except to have cordial ties with Afghanistan." The Afghan people also know the importance of their relations with Pakistan. The normal relations between two countries are very important for the stability of whole the region.

Replying to a question, he said that Pak-Afghan cooperation and friendship are not only against terrorism but it is in the interest of the poor people of the two countries. Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali's visit to Kabul has improved Pak-Afghan political and economic relations, he added.

To another question he said, the reconstruction process is underway in Afghanistan. A lot of development projects of roads, electricity, irrigation, hospitals and education sectors will be completed in Afghanistan within next three or four years. Pakistan can take economic advantage from the situation because it has skill and technology to take part in the rebuilding process.

Five tribesmen surrender in Waziristan
DAWN
PESHAWAR: Another five tribesmen accused of sheltering al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects were handed over to the authorities in South Waziristan tribal agency on Friday.

Their surrender raised to 20 the number of wanted men who have been turned over to the government during the past four days. The arrests were made possible by tribal jirgas of the respective Ahmadzai Wazir sub-tribes in the Wana area of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

According to assistant political agent Rahmatullah Wazir, the five men who were turned over Friday belonged to the Tozikhel sub-tribe. They were Saidal, Shawar, Zawel, Tor Khan and Sardarak. The last-named agreed to surrender in place of his brother Makhan, who had gone to an area near the Afghanistan border on an errand and would give up once he is back home. Sardarak would be freed once Makhan is jailed.

The assistant political agent informed The News that a 30-member tribal jirga left for the remote Shakai area Friday to secure the surrender of two wanted tribesmen belonging to the Utmanzai tribe. The jirga would later travel to the area of Malikshahi tribe where one wanted tribesman resides. Before leaving, the jirga members asked for a tribal lashkar (armed force) to be sent to Shakai to force the wanted men to give up in case they resist arrest.

Meanwhile, elders of the Zalikhel sub-tribe, the biggest of the nine Ahmadzai Wazir sub-tribes and the most pro-Taliban in South Waziristan, held a meeting to review their work and chalk out their future course of action. The Zalikhels have already turned over five of their wanted clansmen to the government and were in the process of convincing the remaining 24 on the list to surrender. The political administration had given the Zalikhels until January 18 to surrender the wanted men but the deadline would most likely be extended to enable their tribal elders to accomplish the task.

The government had handed over a list of 57 wanted tribesmen to the nine Ahmadzai Wazir sub-tribes. Of them, 29 were Zalikhels and the remaining 28 belonged to the eight other Ahmadzai Wazir sub-tribes. The assistant political agent said another list of wanted men would be provided to the tribal jirgas once the tribesmen in the first list were delivered. In case of the jirgas’ inability to hand over the wanted men to the authorities, the government would push for raising of tribal lashkars to forcibly do the job. As a last resort, the government has the option of using force to accomplish the task.

Wreckage Removed From Afghan Airport
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Peacekeepers dragged away the wreckage of a Soviet-era plane on Saturday in an effort to cleanup Kabul's battle-scarred airport and encourage more commercial air traffic. Two years after the fall of the Taliban, the view from the runway presents arriving passengers with a sobering summary of Afghanistan's brutal history. The rusting hulks of planes destroyed by U.S. bombs in the assault that toppled the Islamic hardline regime in late 2001 are mixed with those from earlier wars.

To help in the cleanup, German soldiers used a bulldozer and two cranes on Saturday to haul the crumpled carcass of an Antonov cargo plane from a patch of grass next to a main taxiway to an area known as "the graveyard" — already littered with dozens of destroyed planes and helicopters.

"If we want to go into the future we need to remove the signs of 23 years of war," German Gen. Andris Freutel told reporters watching the removal work, as one of the Afghan national airline's few jets roared off toward Dubai.

Troops from the 5,500-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force have already removed dozens of wrecks, but the airport is still littered with rusting fuselages, burnt-out tanks and troop carriers.

Some planes were bombed from the air or hit by ground fire as the airport repeatedly changed hands, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 and withdrawal a decade later, then through years of indecisive civil war, until the rise and fall of the Taliban. Now, insurgents opposed to the new U.S.-backed government regularly fire rockets at the airstrip.

The area around the airport, which lies in the north of the city with a clear view of the snowy Hindu Kush mountains, also remains heavily mined. Red flags flutter around the sections where mine clearers are working painstakingly to remove them. The de-mining is due to be completed in about a year.

Why Afghanistan Still Hasn't Got an Air Force
Strategy Page 01/03/04 By James Dunnigan
Many reports have come out of Afghanistan on the efforts to rebuild the national army. But nothing has been heard about rebuilding the Afghan air force. That's because there is a struggle going on in the Pentagon between U.S. Air Force officers who want a "proper air force" with jet fighters (the U.S. has a lot of low mileage, slightly used, F-16s available).

But others protested that this would take too long and that what the Afghans really needed was a bunch of smaller, slower aircraft that could double as trainers. There are quite a few aircraft like this available, and they are used by many third world countries for border patrol and counter-insurgency. It's easier to train pilots to use them, cheaper to buy them and much less cheaper to operate them. It costs $2,000 per flying hour to operate an F-16, but less than half that for trainer/light attack types.

These "trainer/light attack aircraft" can also operate from crude airports, or even a stretch of highway. Aircraft like this can carry system to defeat portable surface to air missiles. They can carry smart bombs as well. But from the U.S. Air Force point of view, there are several problems with these aircraft. First, none of these aircraft are made in the United States, so Congress will not be happy about U.S. tax dollars buying non-American warplanes. Second, the U.S. Air Force has no experience with these aircraft. Finally, the air force doesn't want something like this to succeed in Afghanistan and raise questions about U.S. Air Force tactics and buying decisions.

So far, this battle is a stalemate, and the Afghans are left with no air force of their own. But the Afghans could just decide to go form one on their own. For example, Brazil manufactures the Super Tucano, a single engine turbo-prop trainer/attack aircraft that is used over a dozen nations. This aircraft carries two .50 caliber machine-guns and carries 1.5 tons of bombs and rockets. It can stay in the air for 6.5 hours at a time. It is rugged, easy to maintain and cheap ($5 million each, versus over $20 million each for used F-16s.) Afghanistan already has hundreds of pilots who would quickly learn how to handle the Super Tucano. This aircraft could be easily equipped to carry a dozen of the new 250 pound GPS smart bombs (or half a dozen dumb 500 pound bombs), giving it considerable firepower. The Super Tucano already comes equipped with a GPS guidance system. Max altitude is 35,000 feet and cruising speed is 400 kilometers an hour. Naturally, this aircraft can move in lower and slower than any jet can. The Super Tucano is also equipped with armor for the pilot, a pressurized cockpit and an ejection seat. Not bad for an aircraft with a max take off weight of 3.5 tons.

Another proposal is to use a "combat crop duster," originally built at the behest of the U.S. State Department to spray drug crops in nations that produce lots of illegal crops. This aircraft, the Turbo-Thrush S2R-T65/5400 NEDS (Narcotics Eradication Delivery System), has armor for the two man crew, can stay in the air for seven hours, a cruising speed of 272 kilometers an hour and a max altitude of 25,000 feet. The five ton aircraft normally carries about two tons of crop dusting chemicals. The manufacturer modified one for combat use, calling it the AYRES V-1-A Vigilante, simply by equipping it with hardware compatible with military bomb racks. The V-1-A can carry two tons of bombs, machine-gun pods, sensors or whatever. No fancy cockpit or ejection seat, but very maneuverable and over 2,500 of the original crop duster version in use world wide. Each ones costs less than two million dollars.

While an Afghan Air Force officer could understand the usefulness of the V-1-A or Super Tucano, U.S. Air Force officers cannot. This has been the case since the Vietnam war, when pragmatic air force officers got some prop-driven light bombers into action and demonstrated their obvious superiority over jets in counterinsurgency warfare. While the troops loved this kind of air support, the guys who ran the U.S. Air Force did not, and still don't.

Bin Laden in 'good health': report
The Age (Australia) Jan.18, 2004
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar are all in good health, according to a statement purportedly from the Taliban published on an Islamist website.

"The emir of the faithful, Mullar Omar, and sheiks Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri are in good health," said the statement from a body calling itself the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, carried on the website groups.yahoo.com/group/globalislamicmedia/message/291 and signed by "the vanguard of the Mujahideen victory in Afghanistan".

It said media reports about a hunt led by Pakistani and US forces against bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Zawahiri, were "just lies aimed at fooling people".
The whereabouts of three fugitives is unknown, although there are suggestions that bin Laden is hiding in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.

For Afghan Women, Supreme Injustices
The Washington Post 01/16/04 By Jessica Neuwirth
In his Jan. 6 op-ed column, "Afghanistan's Milestone," Zalmay Khalilzad noted the role of women in the constitutional process in Afghanistan. The new constitution articulates the equal rights of men and women before the law, but reality and vision diverge.

The courts in Afghanistan will be instrumental in determining whether the constitutional provision on equality is enforced. Yet the chief justice of the supreme court, Sheik Hadi Shinwari, appointed by President Hamid Karzai, has restored many of the Taliban measures of gender oppression. Afghan women are in jail for the "crime" of running away from home to escape sexual abuse or forced marriage, according to a lawyers association for Afghan women. Legal measures passed or upheld by President Karzai's administration ban married women from high school classes, restrict women's travel without the company of a male guardian and prohibit women from singing in public.

The constitutional provision on equality requires the elimination of these and many other legal provisions, provisions that the country's chief justice has been instrumental in creating, upholding and defending. Unless a new chief justice is appointed, the new constitution will be no more than a symbolic victory for women. JESSICA NEUWIRTH President Equality Now New York

French official: Drugs funding al-Qaida
Afghanistan's record opium poppy crop fueling resurgent Taliban
Posted: January 17, 2004 © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Funded primarily by drugs, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and the remnant Taliban are benefiting from Afghanistan's record opium poppy crop, which provides most of Europe's heroin supply, says French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Alliot-Marie said the situation requires a "more muscular approach to eradication and to the surveillance of banking networks," United Press International reported.

With estimates of between $1 billion and $2 billion in drug revenues flowing into their pockets, warlords are trying to keep their distance from Kabul's central authority, the minister said.

"These vast amounts of drug money have the potential for funding the acquisition by terrorists of CBRN weapons – chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear," she said, according to UPI. "The international weapons black market is also fueling terrorism and political upheavals in different parts of the world."

Western countries "must also fight against all the frustrations that are the source of terrorism – despair, poverty and injustice – that also lead to the recruitment of terrorists in universities who rebel against the injustices they perceive," she said.

Alliot-Marie said the differences between the French government and the Bush administration have been exaggerated but also "exacerbated today by certain radical neoconservative ideas, the very antithesis of European sensibilities."

As reported in October, terrorists in Saudi Arabia have been closely cooperating with drug traffickers. The Saudi-owned London newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted sources saying the terrorists raised more than $500 million through illegal narcotics trafficking and have used the money to purchase weapons and explosives.

The Bottom of Barrel- Pakistan Ambassador to United States
Washington D.C. Ashraf J. Qazi Ambassador Qazi Letter to the Editor Washington Times
Your columnist Georgie Anne Geyer ("Pakistan pressure cooker," Commentary, Jan. 4) quotes journalist Ahmed Rashid assessment to the effect that in Pakistan, "the situation remains inherently unstable." Both President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali have on several occasions acknowledged the many challenges confronting Pakistan, and the recent attempts on the president life are indeed a reflection of them. However, to say, as Miss Geyer does, that Pakistan could become a "a nuclear armed, Islamic radical-ruled state with Osama bin Laden operating right within its borders" is a real stretch.

On New Year Day, President Bush himself said that Pakistan nuclear weapons were secure. He also was good enough to acknowledge that if the United States had made progress against al Qaeda, it was largely because of Pakistan cooperation. Pakistani security forces have raided Taliban hideouts and arrested numbers of their activists. Trilateral cooperation between Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border is being institutionalized and made more effective.

Taliban safe havens are overwhelmingly in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. Despite some difference of perspective, the government and overwhelming majority of people in Pakistan regard President Hamid Karzai — not the Taliban — as the key to stability in Afghanistan and realizing the potential of Pakistani-Afghan relations.

The agreement with the United Action Front actually drives a wedge between moderate conservative politicians who — whatever their views — are willing to work within a parliamentary system and radical extremists who are not. This represents a step forward toward stable parliamentary democracy.

No informed person takes seriously the idea of either a radical putsch or loss of control over nuclear weapons in Pakistan. There is no "lack of any clear succession" in Pakistan. The constitution is clear on this issue. In 1988, when President Zia al-Haq died in an air crash, the succession took place in accordance with the constitution. To suggest a potential rift between the top officers and the ranks of the Pakistani military, as Miss Geyer also does, is, to say the least, to ignore 55 years of history that confirm the military as a cohesive and disciplined national institution.

No doubt a variety of challenges lie ahead, but why ignore the positive? Pakistan economic reform program has won international plaudits and laid the basis for rapid investment, growth and employment. The parliamentary impasse has been resolved. The president has received a vote of confidence from the federal and provincial parliaments. Extremists are on the run and getting desperate. People in Pakistan see them as losers. The visit of the Indian prime minister to Islamabad and his meetings with the president and prime minister of Pakistan have opened the prospect for a resumed dialogue. The president policy of enlightened Islamic moderation will mobilize critical public support for social reforms and human development (including madrassa reform, etc.).

Surely there is reason enough not to obsessively scrape the bottom of the barrel of pessimism when it comes to discussing Pakistan. ASHRAF J. QAZI - Ambassador Embassy of Pakistan, Washington D.C.

UAE minister on hunting trip
BAHAWALPUR, Jan 16: UAE Finance Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktum reached here on Friday on a private visit. He was received at the Bahawalpur airport by District Nazim Tariq Cheema, Punjab CM's representative Mushtaq Hamdani, who is the DG protocol, and other high-ranking officials. Sheikh Hamdan, who is also Dubai's Naib Amir, later left for Cholistan where he would stay for a few days for hunting. It is learnt that special arrangements have been made in the desert to facilitate the guest.

US rules out direct elections in Iraq
WASHINGTON, Jan 16: Faced with objections from Iraq's most powerful Shia leader, the White House said on Friday it may agree to some changes but would stick to its plans for handing over political power to Iraqis by July 1 without first holding direct elections.

Before talks between President George Bush and the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, the White House said it was eager for the United Nations to return to Iraq to help with the transition - a shift that reflects US concerns about growing Iraqi opposition to its plan.

After meeting Mr Bush and his top foreign policy advisers, Mr Bremer will to go the United Nations to seek help on Monday. "We are continuing to work within that framework (of a handover by July 1) and obviously there are discussions about ways to refine or improve that agreement," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. He would not discuss what changes might be made.

But administration officials said it was not feasible to call elections so soon. "A lot of things that you would want to have in place for those elections are not in place at this point," Mr McClellan told reporters.

Iraq's most revered Shia leader, Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, has refused to support the US plan for regional caucuses to select a transitional assembly, which then will pick an interim government to take control by July 1.

Ayatollah Sistani says the current plan will not produce a legitimate authority acceptable to most Iraqis, and predicts rising political tension and violence if credible, transparent polls are not held soon. "We are in discussions with him. We are in discussions with the UN," said Secretary of State Colin Powell. The rift has put the Bush administration in the awkward position of arguing against moving quickly to free elections.

The United States and the United Nations share the view that a lack of electoral registers and polling laws make it unfeasible to hold elections before a handover of power. The administration is preparing for three nationwide elections by the end of next year, including election of a constitutional convention, a referendum on the constitution and ultimately national elections to form a new Iraqi government.

The White House talks come three days before Mr Bremer travels to New York with members of Iraq's US-backed Governing Council to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and ask that the United Nations take a role in the transition.

"The United Nations certainly has special expertise to offer when it comes to helping with elections and the drafting of the constitution," Mr McClellan said. "We hope that they can return soon and certainly we want to work with them to address security matters and we will work with them on that," he added. Washington, which went invaded Iraq without the backing of most of the Security Council, has long resisted a wider UN role in Iraq.

Adnan Pachachi, president of the Governing Council, would like the United Nations to intervene with Ayatollah Sistani. Mr Annan pulled international staff out of Iraq last year after two suicide bomb attacks on the UN headquarters in Baghdad, and has said they will only return if given a role commensurate with the risks they will face.

COUNCIL DEFENDS PLAN:
The plans for a power transfer in Iraq are on track despite a mounting Shia campaign for direct elections, interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Friday, as a Governing Council delegation left for UN talks. Zibari denied the transfer plan was in crisis, while insisting Monday's talks between UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Governing Council current president Adnan Pachachi and US overseer Paul Bremer would focus on the UN's return.

Aga Khan's donation for Bam victims
TEHRAN, Jan 16: The Aga Khan has contributed 400,000 pounds sterling to the Iranian government for rehabilitation assistance for victims of the Bam earthquake. This was disclosed on Friday by the representative of the Aga Khan Development Network in Iran, Dr Nouraddin Allahdini, in a press release. In a message sent to President Mohammad Khatami, the Aga Khan expressed his distress at the massive loss of life, serious injuries and damage to property resulting from the earthquake in Bam.

The Day After - Can Karzai Measure Up to the Task ?
Dr. Rauf Roashan -
The new Afghan Constitution provides guidelines for governance in a country where government had been destroyed almost completely due to the long years of conflict and turmoil. The document provides instructions for rebuilding of the government based on democratic principles. The burden of the task lies on the shoulders of the government, which includes the three branches. In actuality the main burden is on the executive. Presently that executive, in its transitional state, is still the government of Karzai who is strongly hopeful of winning the first general elections in June this year. His national and especially international supporters specifically the Untied States would want him to win, since in a strange coincidence his fate is tied up with the success of the American objectives in Afghanistan.

Karzai presently runs on his own recognition. He has not attempted at building a political base like a party to support his agenda. Therefore, the main criterion for his election would be his performance. This performance would be considered over a long period since his ascension to the political stage of the country as the head of the interim government and later as the chief of the transitional period and now for at least another six months as the person responsible for determining the course of political action in the country helped by a brand new constitution that gives him unprecedented powers.

But the real task of nation building that should have started on the Day After the promulgation of the new Constitution is huge, formidable and complex. Many wonder if Karzai is cut out to deal with the task ahead. They base their judgment on his performance to date. Looking back over the past more than two years, he has not made any significant headway in any of the tasks entrusted him. The country's only achievement, the promulgation of the Constitution is in reality credited to the United Nations efforts and the US politicking. Beyond that excepting an extremely conservative attitude that has minimized conflict with the warlords and has prevented dangerous instigation of opposition, Karzai has served more as a dependent of US military presence than an independent national leader. In physical terms, excepting the reparation of the Kabul-Kandahar Highway by the United States no other tangible achievement can be pointed out during his tenure. This is not to state that even the above achievements were easy to score. The country was, as it still is, at the mercy of the warlords and gunmen who had, in a strange way, accepted Karzai as a symbol of leadership for Afghanistan and that also only in Kabul. His writ did not go much beyond what is known as the presidential palace. More than once, his decrees remained unfulfilled and he was found incapable of doing anything about them. Yet, he survived a dangerous period in the life of the country- a period that was also one of the most important eras in Afghan history. On the other hand, his persistence and patience paid off in the promulgation of the Constitution that is now considered one of his major weapons for governing the country.

Now that the guidelines are on the table, the nation and the world would watch with interest how well would he tackle the numerous tasks ahead of him. For an example, take any article of the Constitution and you will find huge challenges for the government to take up. There are laws to be drafted complementing many articles of the Constitution without which, the Constitution would be just a compilation of words and empty directives. There are government institutions and organizations to be built up. A national army and police are to be put in place as soon as today to guarantee the security needed for advancing the task of governance. Preparations for general parliamentary and presidential elections are to be made as early as yesterday. This includes voter registration which in itself is a complex and difficult task considering the situations in Afghanistan. The country's financial infrastructure is to be strengthened, as of also yesterday, to provide for the purchase of goods and services needed for implementing democratic principles in the country and keeping the wheels of government running. No nation can depend indefinitely on foreign handouts and foreign financial support. Such reliance would turn leaders into stooges. Afghanistan needs to stand on its own feet and Karzai has to help it do so. The Constitution has given him further solid missions to accomplish. Let us look at a few examples: Article Six of Chapter 1 of the Constitution reads: "The state is obliged to create a prosperous and progressive society based on social justice, protection of human dignity, protection of human rights, realization of democracy, and to ensure national unity and equality among all ethnic groups and tribes and to provide for balanced development in all areas of the country"

Even if this were the only obligation given to the state of which Karzai is presently the head today and hopeful to continue to be if he succeeds the elections of 2004, it would take him day and night beginning early morning of the "Day After" the Constitution was promulgated to attempt at starting the task. It is easy to formulate articles requiring the state to create a prosperous and progressive society. It is a different thing to do so. It is easy to write about creation of social justice, protection of human dignity and protection of human rights. It is a different thing to accomplish these. It is easy to talk about the realization of democracy and ensuring of national unity and equality in a multiethnic and tribal society such as Afghanistan. It is a different thing to achieve them. It is so easy to talk about balanced development in all areas in the country. It is extremely difficult to implement this.

The Constitution further assigns a myriad of responsibilities to the government and to the leaders of its branches and specifically the head of state. To fulfill those responsibilities requires statesmanship, knowledge, skill, administrative know how, political maturity, popular support, selflessness, dedication, organizational skills, planning and perseverance.

Experience has shown that in developing societies, one successful score leads the leaders to become arrogant, even selfish and become slow and sluggish in leading of the nation any further. They pause to cherish the sweet taste of a minor success forgetting the enormity of the full task ahead. The question now is whether Hamid Karzai can use the strong support and powers that the new Constitution has given him to make democracy a reality in Afghanistan and to lead the nation toward prosperity. His real test began last Sunday when the Constitution was promulgated. If he proves to measure up to the new tasks entrusted him by the nation, he will go in history as a national leader. It he fails to take the opportunity and if he fails to prove as a selfless leader then he will go down in history as a stooge. 1/9/04