The ‘Kabul process’

This is apropos a Business Recorder news item “Kabul to host peace summit after week of deadly violence” carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, Kabul will host a multinational peace conference on Afghanistan, as the capital reels from a wave of bombings and clashes that left more than 100 people dead and hundreds wounded in the last week.

The report also adds that much of Kabul remains on lockdown ahead of the conference, labelled the “Kabul Process”, with tighter than usual security, including more armed checkpoints and armoured vehicles patrolling the streets, and tight restrictions on civilian traffic.

That the human misery fails to disappear in Afghanistan is a fact that has found its best expression from bomb blasts that rock big and small towns of this war-ravaged country on a daily basis. How could the Afghan convert their protracted misfortune to an opportunity, however modest, anytime soon? The Afghanistan government must take a realistic approach to the challenge. It must stop blaming Pakistan for its woes.

KARACHI NAQI ZAFAR