Hamid Karzai's journey in a war-torn nation

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Karzai joined hands with the anti-Soviet Mujahideens and started giving financial and military support to the anti-Soviet Mujahideens during the Soviet intervention. He returned to Afghanistan after the soviet withdrawal from Afghan soil in 1992.

CJ: Grace Laikhuram

Sat, Oct 24, 2009 13:45:44 IST

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Afghanistan News :

AFTER THE fall of Taliban from power in 2001 in Afghanistan following the war on terrorism launched by the United States in Kandahar, a new interim government was formed in 2002 with Hamid Karzai as the President. The new government was eagerly awaited by the people of Afghanistan. It was looked upon as a saviour, a ray of hope in a troubled state ruled by Taliban for almost a decade.

In the October 2004 presidential election, Hamid Karzai won the presidential election and became the first democratically elected leader of Afghanistan and along with that came a major responsibility of delivering the hopes, needs and aspirations of the Afghans for a better life. The new government was marked as a sign of new beginning in the war torn country.

Hamid Karzai was born on 24 December 1957. He belonged to Pashtun of the Popalzai tribe His father Abdul Ahad Karzai served as a Deputy Speaker of Parliament and his family was a strong supporter of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah. Karzai did his schooling from Kandahar. After completing his master’s degree from India, he gave himself up for the cause of driving away Soviets from the soil of Afghanistan. For this cause, he joined hands with the anti-Soviet Mujahideens and started giving financial and military support to the anti-Soviet Mujahideens during the Soviet intervention. He returned to Afghanistan after the soviet withdrawal from Afghan soil in 1992.

Following the fall of the Soviet backed government Karzai was made Deputy Foreign Minister of post war government (1992-1994). Talibans came to power in Afghanistan in the mid nineties. Later, he withdrew support for Taliban due to the intervention by foreign terrorist and worked relentlessly to garner support for the anti-Taliban movement from Pakistan where he stayed in exile. The September 11, 2001 attack on United States, which was believed to be the brain child of Osama Bin Laden, gave a new momentum to the effort of Karzai’s anti-Taliban movement. Following the September 11 attacks, the US reiterated by starting counter terrorism attacks in Kandahar to capture Al Qaeda operatives and depose the Taliban regime.

The US military forces joined hands with the Mujahideens loyal to the Northern Alliance and finally overthrew the Talibans. The fall of Talibans from power paved the way for the formation of an interim transitional administration. Four factions representing the major ethnic group of Afghanistan met in Bonn, Germany, which led to the formation of the new interim government with Hamid Karzai as its President on December 22, 2002. Hamid won the support and faith of the international community as a figure, who is most likely to bring about a peaceful and stable existence in Afghanistan. He won the 2004 Presidential election and became the first democratically elected President. After winning the election, he removed the northern alliance warlords from his cabinet and to the surprise of the world community, he instead of adopting the much expected reformist path, played extremely safe and treaded his path with great caution. Afghanistan’s economy saw a decent growth during his tenure.

Karzai sought the help of the international community for eliminating terrorists operating within and outside Afghanistan claiming Afghanistan as the worst victim of terrorism. He was actively involved in trying to make peace with militant groups in order to bring peace in the country though making his stance clear on the presence of foreign terrorists on the soil of Afghanistan.

With his presidential term coming to an end, 2009 presidential election was conducted on 20 August, which was considered a fraudulent election. Investigation of the fraud brought down Karzai’s vote below 50 per cent forcing the Afghanistan’s Election Commission to order a second run-off on November 7. Karzai agreed to a run off stating there is no possibility of a coalition government in the law, eliminating the possibility of a power sharing with his nearest rival Abdullah. Abdullah, who is believed to be favoured by the US over Karzai bacuse the US is looking at a change in power. The US desperately wanted a power sharing which will result in diminished role for the Presidency. Unfortunately, for the US, the possibility of power sharing has been ruled out with Afghanistan gearing up for a run-off on November 7. The result will be interesting. Let’s see whether the result of the run-off goes in favour of Hamid Karzai dashing the dreams of the US.

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