Afghanistan finalises draft of pact that allows extended stay for US forces

The document will be presented to a grand “jirga” next week to discuss and take a final decision.

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan has finalised the draft of a security pact with the United States that will allow continued American military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Afghan diplomats in Islamabad said on Friday.

The document is now ready to be presented to a grand “jirga”, or council, next week to discuss and take a final decision, they said.

Nearly 3,000 people are expected to attend the assembly.

A diplomat, requesting not to identified, told The Express Tribune on Friday that a final draft of bilateral security agreement (BSA) has been sent to the United States.

Sources say Afghan President Hamid Karzai is likely to address the upcoming jirga.

The draft is currently being translated into Pashto and Darri, the native languages in Afghanistan, for the jirga's participants.

US and Afghanistan have been involved in consultations for nearly two years over certain controversial parts of the pact including the issue of immunity of the US soldiers and exact locations of the bases.

In June, President Karzai had suspended talks on the pact in an angry reaction to the Taliban opening their political office in Qatar.

Karzai was upset at the manner in which the office was opened, with the Taliban white flag and a plaque of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the country’s former name under Taliban rule, outside their office.

Afghan authorities had blamed the American administration for its ‘contradictory’ stance towards the peace process.

Washington later agreed to Karzai’s notion and also dropped the idea of holding talks with the Taliban in Qatar just to pacify Karzai.

However, it took months to revive the talks and now Kabul says the draft has been finalised.

The US had wanted to sign the pact by October and had also warned that it could adopt the policy of a ‘Zero Option’, meaning total withdrawal of troops by 2014.

Karzai later floated the concept of a jirga to take a decision over the pact. But the proposal came under fire by political opponents, who argued that there is no need of such an assembly in the presence of the parliament.

The Afghan president had once said that the US wanted nine permanent bases for its troops, who will stay after the NATO withdrawal.

The Taliban and the Hizb-e-Islami have already rejected the BSA, saying the permanent stay of US troops means a long war.

Opponents claim that Karzai is likely to invite like-minded people to the jirga as a way of ensuring approval for the controversial pact. They also claim that Karzai may use the jirga to seek personal privileges in return for signing the BSA.