Perhaps further damage has been
done by the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) agreement to provide Australia the
wherewithal to acquire a nuclear-powered submarine as part of its arsenal to
compete militarily with China in the South China Sea. The consequent
cancellation of the Australian agreement to buy conventional submarines from
France has caused understandable umbrage in France and undermined the
transatlantic alliance.
It seems that despite US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that the US would use “diplomacy”
rather than military force to advance its interests it is like Trump saying ‘my
way or the highway’ with little or no regard for the interests of allies. This
attitude, it is feared, will also be a determinant of US policy in Afghanistan.
There is some hope to be
entertained in the light of the response to the appeal by UN Secretary General
António Guterres for funding the relief programme for the Afghans and the
determination of many NGOs with locally recruited staff to, in the words of a
UN official, adopt the slogan of ‘Stay and Deliver’. The WFP programme has
received pledges for the full $1.3bn it had sought.
The question is, will the Taliban
and the expanded cabinet, be willing to entrust to the UN and its dedicated
staff the responsibility of receiving and disbursing all aid, recruiting from
neighbouring countries the experts who have already migrated or will do so?
This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. In the years that they dominated the
scene in Afghanistan it was often said that they would leave governance to
experts while limiting themselves to overseeing the administration and keeping
a check on corruption.
As regards the role of women,
little attention has been paid in the international media to a report that
Afghan women have set up organisations over six years of age (35 per cent) and
others less than five years old (65pc) which have created 129,000 jobs largely
but not exclusively for women working in handicrafts, food production and
distribution of their products. Most of these organisations are not licensed.
If the Taliban want to prove that
they do not want women to be discriminated against and will permit them to earn
a living “within the framework of the Taliban interpretation of the dictates of
Islam”, they can do so by permitting these organisations to continue to
function and offer them the licensing they need under current Afghan law.
As far as Pakistan is concerned,
we have done our bit by facilitating transfers of persons of all nationalities
wishing to leave Afghanistan with proper documentation and helping Qatar make
Kabul airport functional. We have provided more food and medical equipment etc.
to the Afghan people than our limited resources would ordinarily permit.
This was not just a brotherly
gesture but also a recognition that Afghanistan’s stability was a sine qua non
for regional stability and in particular for the tribal areas now merged with
KP. About 90pc of the Pak-Afghan border has been fenced. The rest must be
completed.
The government must ensure that
no matter what the opposition says there should be only one person, preferably
a civilian like Ambassador Sadiq to talk about Afghanistan and to deal with the
efforts being made to make Pakistan the scapegoat for what has happened in
Afghanistan.
We must make sure that the regime
in Afghanistan understands our concerns about the safe haven enjoyed by the TTP
in Nangarhar. Our policy with regard to the TTP must also be thought through
before anything is said publicly. ‘Least said soonest mended’ should be the
wise words that guide our statements on Afghanistan.
The writer is a former foreign
secretary.
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