Ghani-Abdullah squabble likely to impact security

Afghans do not want Kerry to land in Kabul again to settle differences

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah have involved in political squabbling at a time when Taliban have stepped up their attacks. At this time, political polarisation could lead to further security complications.

The chief executive’s camp insists the presidential office has continuously disregarded a power-sharing agreement that was brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry in September 2014, after months of tensions between the two leaders.

Daud Asas, an adviser to Abdullah, listed a series of issues that included Ghani’s failure to convene a Loya Jirga or grand assembly to amend the Constitution of Afghanistan to create the office of prime minister for the chief executive, according to Tolo TV.

Asas also mentioned the inability of the president to introduce electoral reforms that are also essential ahead of the parliamentary elections to avoid fraud in elections. Abdullah also wants to be consulted on the appointment of government’s officials.

Verbal onslaught

As Abdullah’s advisers and spokesperson came down heavily on the presidential camp, Ghani used his address at the inauguration of the youth parliament on August 14, saying, “Dictatorship and intimidation cannot be tolerated in Afghanistan.” He said this in reference to the onslaught in public by his chief executive.

Media reports suggest that Abdullah publicly criticised the president after he blocked the bank accounts of the powerful governor, Atta Mohammad Noor, a staunch supporter of Abdullah. The president also slapped travel curbs on Noor, whose supporters had also been involved in clashes with the fighters of the first vice-president, General Rashid Dostam, in power struggle in the north.

The intensity of the Ghani-Abdullah tension was felt when Abdullah skipped the country’s Independence Day function that was arranged at the presidential palace on August 18. On August 17, Ghani invited Abdullah for a meeting at the presidential palace. However, the meeting ended without any result and officials now say more meetings are planned in the coming days to find a solution.

Political polarisation is increasing amid speculations about the legal status of the government as it was decided in the Kerry-brokered agreement to convene a Loya Jirga within two years to amend the Constitution.

Lapse of time

Although Kerry had clarified in his trip to Kabul in April that the period of the National Unity Government is for five years, many have different views as the government has not yet succeeded in implementing some decisions in the agreements.

The most important part of the agreement is the summoning of the Loya Jirga.

Former president Hamid Karzai is also among those who have challenged the legality of the two-headed government. Karzai, who is apparently struggling for a leading role in the country, went public recently to call on Ghani and Abdullah to honour their pledge of holding a Loya Jirga to formalise their power-sharing.

“The incumbent government needs to deliver on all the promises made to the Afghan people,” Karzai told Radio Free Afghanistan this week. “They should hold the Loya Jirga soon so that Afghans can gather to determine their future.”

Not the right time

The Afghan media has called the Ghani-Abdullah tension a bad omen for the war-shattered Afghanistan.

“The Taliban have stepped up their attacks,” stated a private newspaper, Hasht-e-Subh. “Helmand and Urozgan provinces are on the verge of collapse at a time when the president’s and the chief executive’s offices are engaged in leveling allegations at each other.”

Many in Afghanistan were right to view the Kerry-brokered agreement as unnatural. They had questioned how a winner and loser in election could get 50-50 share in a government. But Americans intervened as they could not afford any political crisis when they were to formally wind up their combat mission in Afghanistan.

“The incumbent government was a strategy by the foreigners and the Afghans do not expect anything good to come from it at all,” Weesa, an independent newspaper, stated on August 16.

However, in his reported remarks on Friday, State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said Kerry rang up the two leaders to settle differences.

A vast majority would not like Kerry intervening in Afghanistan’s internal affairs again. The two leaders must have the ability to patch up without any foreign intervention.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.