Taliban 2.0 & Afghanistan’s Earthquake: The way to cope with the plethora of challenges

Rai Ahmad Kamal
Afghanistan is enduring difficult times these days. It is on the verge of economic collapse. Since the Taliban have assumed power, they are struggling on the internal and external fronts to cope with the plethora of challenges. The biggest challenge for them is to cope with the contracting economy. With every passing day, apprehensions are mounting that it might not reach bankruptcy. The recent devastating earthquake(6.1 magnitudes) has added more woes to the already struggling country. Approximately 1000 casualties have been reported and more than 1500 people are injured. Only 17% of hospitals are functioning in Afghanistan which has made it even more difficult to entertain injured persons properly. Many areas have been badly affected by this earthquake. There are apprehensions that the death toll could rise because many people are still missing and they could be under debris. Due to hard mountainous terrain, it is a tedious task to carry out relief activities in all areas because of the lack of infrastructure. The dilemma is that the whole of Afghanistan is not properly connected through the road network. When the US landed in Afghanistan after 9/11, it started making roads. It had planned to connect major cities of Afghanistan(Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, Kandahar, Delaram, and Herat) through the “Afghan Ring Road Project”. But this plan couldn’t be materialized because the US’ attention got diverted toward the Iraq War. So, the process of building infrastructure slowed down and it completely stopped when Obama gave the evacuation plan. Currently, Afghanistan is facing the worst humanitarian crisis of its history. Due to the freezing of assets of $9.5 billion by the US, the Taliban are having difficulty running governmental affairs and can’t pay salaries to civil servants. Before the Taliban assumed power in 2021, 75% of governmental functions were dependent on foreign aid which was stopped after the withdrawal of the US, because of the apprehensions by the donor agencies that aid could be used to buy weapons that would consolidate the power of Taliban. But in all this scenario, the ordinary Afghans are suffering more. The World Food Program has estimated that 35% of people are facing hunger. According to UNICEF, 3.2 million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition and at least 1 million of these children could die due to severe acute malnutrition without immediate treatment. The UN has appealed for $4.5 billion to avert the humanitarian crisis. Currently, this deadly earthquake has put the Taliban regime in a more complicated situation because relief activities can’t be aligned on the fast track as Afghanistan lacks a proper disaster management system. The UN Secretary-General said that the organization has fully mobilized to assist with the deployment of health teams and supplies. Eight trucks of food and other necessities were sent by Pakistan. Although the US and the EU have offered assistance in relief activities, the mistrust seems to be the hurdle in providing economic assistance to the Taliban regime. The Taliban regime is desperately seeking economic, health, food, and technical assistance from the international community to cope with the difficult situation. The issue of legitimacy shouldn’t hinder the international humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, said an economic expert, Janat Fahim. Although Pakistan, Iran, UAE, and some other countries have sent supplies to Afghanistan, which isn’t enough keeping in view the magnitude of the situation. Keeping aside all the international assistance, the real responsibility lies with the Taliban if they veritably want to be the legitimized rulers of Afghanistan and want to bring change in the lives of ordinary Afghans then they will have to shun their old tactics. Though they claim themselves as Taliban 2.0(reformed Taliban), on-ground reality depicts another side of the story. They are still the same hardliners with the old stringent ideology of curbing human rights, restricting women to homes, infringing their right to education, restricting them to travel alone, curbing media freedom, and threatening revenge killings against political rivals. To deal with the issue of international recognition, firstly they should realize to be legitimized internally. They can do so by forming an inclusive government. They should resolve the disputes with the NRF of Panjshir valley. They should also resolve their internal differences. The Haqqani network should align itself with the Durrani group. The Durrani group, being more rational, took part in the Doha deal. They also propose to form an inclusive government but the Haqqani network led by Sirrajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister of Afghanistan, considers war as the sole option for every problem. It might be possible that the Haqqani network is the main hindrance to forming an inclusive government. Unless the Taliban mend their ways, it is unlikely that they would be able to get international recognition and financial help from international financial institutions and donor agencies because of their chequered past in which they violated all the international laws regarding international relations and human rights. Furthermore, the Taliban shouldn’t let anyone use their soil to launch terrorist activities. In recent days, several attacks occurred in Pakistan. These attacks were carried out by proscribed TTP based in Afghanistan. Taliban must realize that these attacks would deteriorate their relations with neighbors including Pakistan, China, Iran, and CARs. They should engage themselves with neighbors to bring a positive change in the lives of ordinary Afghans. They should appeal to the professionals to move back to the country so that they may incorporate in the development of the country. Taliban should prioritize governance as their top agenda. They must ensure the right man for the right job. A religious cleric won’t be able to manage a technical institution with zero knowledge. Taliban should be part of CPEC which will pave the way to bring Afghanistan out of the quagmire as developing infrastructure would help installation of the industry. Till now, Afghanistan’s woes have been ramping up and the recent earthquake has compounded the more woes. If the Taliban follow up on these measures, they will be able to win the international community’s trust and ultimately they would be recognized as well. Alienating this roadmap wouldn’t benefit them and Afghanistan would face more catastrophic consequences. At the end of the day, it will affect the ordinary Afghan people who could be used by terrorist organizations.