A Five-Point Plan for Peace
By Masood Sharif Khan Khattak
Islamabad , Pakistan
A five-point plan to bring peace to Afghanistan and the region:
1. NATION BUILDING INSTEAD OF MILITARY FORCE:
A unilateral ceasefire should be announced by US and NATO saying that military operations, henceforth, will only be undertaken in self-defense. Simultaneously, the offer of peace talks must be made to the Afghan Taliban.
A resolution must come forth from all the stakeholders — i.e., the USA, the UN Security Council, NATO, the UK, other major EU and NATO countries, and from Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India — that they all resolve to bring peace to Southwest Asia by replacing military activity with developmental activity.
2. Military Stand Down
After the preliminary rounds of peace talks the United States must announce unilaterally that it will relocate its forces to their prewar, non-combat posture as a prelude to an eventual and complete military evacuation within a reasonable timeframe.
3. Free & Fair Presidential Elections in Afghanistan
The upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan must be treated as a window of opportunity and they should be conducted by the Afghan people themselves, with the help of observers and expert teams from Islamic countries chosen by the Afghans, for the sake of neutrality. The US, although militarily present in Afghanistan, should voluntarily adopt the role of a non-interfering observer after having made it clear that violence will not be tolerated. The US should let it be the fairest of elections. Let anyone who the people of Afghanistan genuinely want to elect win. The Afghan Taliban must be allowed to field their candidate(s) and let them all contest freely. Whatever government then comes into existence in Afghanistan must take up nation building activity of that war-ravaged nation in right earnest.
4. End Indian Presence On Afghan Soil
The US should order all Indian presence out of Afghanistan as this is seen by Pakistanis as an outright hostile act against Pakistan. It cannot be said in any other way because the US and NATO facilitation of the Indian intelligence agencies to operate against Pakistan's interests from outposts in Afghanistan can only be seen as detrimental to Pakistan's integrity. Ask anyone on the street anywhere in Pakistan's remotest corner and he or she will wonder why the government of Pakistan is not protesting to the US on this point. Being an ally in what is called by the Americans themselves "a common war" the US has no alternative but to put a stop to Indian activities in Afghanistan forthwith in order to win the friendship of the Pakistani nation. Let Afghanistan become sovereign again and then decide for itself how much Indian presence they would want in Afghanistan. The Indians should also know that if they accept any military role in Afghanistan they will get a taste of unconventional warfare that they will not be able to sustain for even a few weeks. Occupied Kashmir violence will be so dwarfed that the Indians will be wonderstruck if they ever choose to accept any military role in Afghanistan.
5. US must Stop the Demonization of Pakistan
Lastly, if it wants Pakistan to be on its side as an ally, the US should immediately stop demonizing the Pakistani military establishment. The allegations against the ISI and the Pakistani army are unwarranted. Who has suffered more casualties in hostilities at the hands of the Taliban: The Pakistani army or the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan?
CONCLUSION
Pakistan has already done enough at the cost of its own national fabric being torn to shreds. It is now time for peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the entire region.
It is in the long-term interest of the United States itself to seek peace rather than continue to destabilize the region through a heavy military presence in a combat role.
It is also not going to be long before the cash-starved US public starts calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; a call no US administration will be able to ignore. This region will then be lost to the USA for many decades to come.
The above exit strategy will have enormous dividends for all the stakeholders —i.e., the USA, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Contrarily, indefinite US military occupation of Afghanistan will create a devastating turmoil in the region. Resultantly, the US will lose its present foothold in Afghanistan and Pakistan just like it lost its foothold in post-1979 Iran.
(The writer is former Director General of the Intelligence Bureau and former vice-president of the PPP Parliamentarians. This is a reduced and edited version produced by AhmedQuraishi.com and extracted from the original. WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
