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Mr Karzai stop blaming others and blame your own self

Here we go again; the annoying show of Mr. Karzai is on once again against Pakistan.  Mr Karzai in Delhi yesterday accused that Afghan government has received information from a western intelligence agency that Laskhar-i- Tayiba is responsible for the recent attacks on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Herat. Karzai shared the information with a select section of the media before leaving for Kabul. However he did not name the agency, which gave a written report to the Afghanistan government in this regard.

His comments came at a time when Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was still in India. As reported by BBC, India's new PM Narendra Modi also urged his Pakistani counterpart to crack down on militants and speed up the trial of the 2008 Mumbai attacks suspects. So Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s unilateral dream of peace, cooperation and resolution of outstanding disputes with India will most likely remain a dream. India may use this statement of Karzai as an excuse to stop proposed dialogue process with Pakistan till a credible action is taken against the accused.

Even when India has not blamed any Pakistan-based group for the attack on its consulate in Herat; Mr Karzai has really fuelled the situation by stating that, "Both Afghanistan and India hope that Islamabad would act against terror sanctuary’’. We must not forget that the composite dialogue process was put on hold by India after the Mumbai carnage of 2008.

After a thirteen years rule; Mr Karzai’s term as President of Afghanistan has already finished on May 22, 2014. But he is still clinging to the office and trying his best to be in the news through his unpopular decisions and fiery statements against Pakistan and the U.S.  The Guardian reported in January 2014 that a former ambassador on record has said that ‘Karzai needed medication for mental health problems’.

A double-faced Karzai could easily be viewed as yesterday responding to a question on whether a Taliban government could return to Kabul, Karzai said, "All powers in the region need to come together to defeat terror." By saying so, Karzai appears to urge the unity of the regional powers to defeat the Taliban and their future regime in Afghanistan. However his recent actions exhibit contrary to what he said.  He refused to visit the Bagram military base when US President Barack Obama made a surprise visit there to meet troops on 25 May. Similarly, the American president turned down a proposal for talks at Karzai’s palace in downtown Kabul. For U.S this was probably the last attempt to talk Karzai into singing the Bilateral security agreement (BSA) to justify presence of reportedly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after the longest military campaign in American history will be officially over. But the stubborn Karzai has been consistent in turning down all kinds of proposals to sign the security deal with the U.S. Although Russia, China, India, and Pakistan have all publicly supported the BSA. But Karzai's refusal to sign the security pact, along with his increasingly anti-American and anti-Pakistan rhetoric, has strained Afghanistan relations with both U.S. and Pakistan and it may result into Talibans’ return to power.

In case of Pakistan; there is nothing new as Mr. Karzai routinely makes such denunciation against Pakistan. In March this year; Karzai accused Pakistan of being behind series of attacks and of blocking his government from striking a peace deal with the Taliban. The fact remains that Afghani Taliban has denied any talks with Karzai and clarified that it did not want to speak with the Afghan president. So how Pakistan could be hold responsible to block the peace deal between Afghan Government and Taliban? In-fact, the weak and corrupt governance of Karzai is causing some Afghans to acquiesce to, or even support outright, Taliban insurgents as providers of security and impartial justice. The Afghan government’s limited writ and widespread official corruption are identified even by the U.S. officials as factors helping sustain the insurgency in Afghanistan.

After the fall on the Taliban, the United Nations named Hamid Karzai as the interim President in Afghanistan. Although he was not the first choice of many political leaders in the west, he was acceptable since he was a known commodity, and a moderate with ties to the west. For the first seven years of his Presidency, Karzai was a favourite of the White House. He had fallen under U.S. scrutiny because of corruption, perceived weakness, and links to crime. A closer examination, in light of more recent developments, reveals severe defects in his leadership.

During the Bush Administration, U.S. officials generally refrained from publicly criticising Karzai for his toleration of rampant official corruption. However, President Obama and his senior aides, including the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, have become highly critical of Karzai’s shortcomings on this issue. U.S. officials apparently believed that the failures of the Afghan government were contributing to a souring of Western publics on the mission. The Obama Administration’s March and December 2009 strategy announcements highlighted the need to reduce official corruption of Karzai Government.

On December 1, 2009, President Obama said “We expect those (Karzai Government) who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable.” Official corruption was identified as a key problem in the August 30, 2009, assessment of the Afghanistan situation by Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, overall commander of U.S. and international forces there.

Karzai went into the August 20, 2009, presidential election. Amid widespread charges of fraud, many substantiated by a U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, nearly one-third of Karzai’s votes were invalidated; leaving Karzai just short of the 50%+ total needed to avoid a second-round runoff. Asserting that more fraud was likely, Karzai’s main challenger dropped out of the race on November 1, 2009, and Karzai was declared the winner. Karzai was inaugurated on November 19, with U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in attendance.

President Karzai has further moved his government away from a true democracy, as he himself appointed the commission on election fraud. The CBC news reported, “Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reportedly granted himself powers over a key electoral watchdog, a move likely to aggravate relations between his government and NATO allies fighting insurgents in the war-torn country’’.

Katzman has rightly pointed out that partly as a result of what many Afghans view as a “predatory” central government, many Afghans and international donors have been losing faith in Karzai’s leadership. Some observers, such as former Coordinator for Counter-Narcotics and Justice Reform Thomas Schweich, in a July 27, 2008, New York Times article, have gone so far as to assert that Karzai, to build political support, deliberately tolerates officials who are allegedly involved in the narcotics trade. The New York Times reported allegations (October 5, 2008) that Karzai’s brother, Qandahar provincial council chief Ahmad Wali Karzai, has protected narcotics trafficking in the province. Another brother, Mahmoud Karzai, has apparently grown wealthy through real estate and auto sales ventures in Qandahar and Kabul, purportedly by fostering the impression he can influence his brother, President Karzai.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported in May that $50 million in stolen U.S. aid funds—which U.S. investigators discovered in an Afghan bank account—were missing because the Afghan government did not implement U.S. requests to freeze the account. The SIGAR issued an audit in January 2014 that asserted there was risk of misuse of U.S. funds because of the Ministry of Public Health’s payment of salaries in cash and the possible overpayment for commodities and services by the Ministry of Mines—overpayments that could possibly be used to finance bribes or kickbacks.

Political weakness of Karzai is yet another factor which has doomed the Afghanistan. Because of his inconsistencies in war policies against the Taliban, many questions arose about his ability to help and end the conflict. President Obama has rightly said that, “he regards Mr. Karzai as unreliable and ineffective.” He implemented policies which worked against the goal of stability in Afghanistan. He tried to stop all night raids in Afghanistan. This was especially troubling as the Taliban had been able to conduct a majority of their operations at night.

His actions and the actions of those around him has lead Afghanistan towards failure, rather than helping it towards success. So he should stop blaming others and blame himself.

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