Hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan

PRIME Minister Imran Khan has warned that a hasty international withdrawal from Afghanistan would be “unwise” and cautioned against setting unrealistic timelines. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, the Premier said that the path leading to the talks between the Afghan leadership and the Taliban was not easy but “we were able to press on thanks to the courage and flexibility that were on display from all sides”.
The Prime Minister expressed his opinion on different aspects of the complicated Afghan conflict in a candid manner on the eve of three-day visit of Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) of Afghanistan to discuss ways and means to carry forward the Afghan peace process. Apart from cautioning against likely pitfalls in the dialogue process, conspiracies of regional spoilers, hasty withdrawal and setting ‘unrealistic’ timelines, the Prime Minister also highlighted the need to do comprehensive planning for post-war Afghanistan that would understandably require continued interest and support of the international community to rebuild its devastated infrastructure and resumption of normal life. He has also rightly emphasized the need to create conditions that will enable the millions of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, and other countries, to return to their homeland with dignity and honour and this aspect is important if the world is genuinely interested to wipe out the menace of terror and one of the key factors of instability in the region. As for hasty withdrawal, the term was used about a decade back by former President Pervaiz Musharraf and one wonders when the appropriate time would come for occupation forces to vacate their aggression, which is the root cause of problems in Afghanistan. Afghanistan doesn’t need occupiers even for a day; rather it needs peace-keepers who should perform their clearly stipulated responsibilities in a transparent manner under the umbrella of the United Nations. There is no doubt that the danger level of mutual distrust and lack of confidence among Afghan factions makes transition to peace difficult but this should not mean continuation of the occupation of a sovereign country as the task of facilitating transition can best be performed by UN peace-keepers as they have successfully demonstrated in some other countries.