Karzai Succumbs to Pressure; Opens the Parliament on the 26th of Jan

Under unbearable pressure from all sides, President Karzai has backed down on his earlier stance to put off the inauguration ceremony of the Afghan Parliament by another month.

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In a meeting with the new parliamentarians at the presidential palace, the President informed the parliamentarians that he would officially inaugurate the parliament on Wednesday the 6th of Dalw (the 11th month of Afghan Calendar) that coincides with the 26th of January 2011.

Earlier nodding to a request-cum-proposal put forth to the President by the Chief Judge of the decreed special court that was enacted to look into the affairs of mishandling, mismanagement, fraud, voter intimidation and irregularities committed during the parliamentary elections, President Karzai had opted to put off the inauguration ceremony of the parliament thus barring the new parliamentarians to start off with the legislative tasks they had fought elections for. This brought a crowd of angry new parliamentarians together who warned the presidency of the consequences of such acts. The parliamentarians went on to elect their speaker, deputy speakers and other parliamentary officials and decided to hold sessions of the parliament at an alternative location if not allowed into the parliament building by the security guards. This recent wave of political unrest created concerns as far as the white guhouse and the NATO headquarters in Brussels who taught such undemocratic moves on the part of the President would undermine US and NATO efforts in the country.

Though it seems that the president has backed down on the direct pressure of the new parliamentarians but the story seems to be different. It’s not the first time that the politically weak and unstable Karzai has backed down immediately on a decision. Every time he has surrendered to the mounting pressures from the international community and interestingly this man would disclose such acts later in press conferences in a special emotional manner like what he did in a press conference after being declared the winner of the Presidential elections that was marred with massive cases of fraud and ballot staffing.

The question now is whether his agreement to go on with the inauguration ceremony on Wednesday will really materialize? Will the tensions that have risen before the inauguration ceremony die out with the opening or will it grow so large as to engulf and eat out President Karzai’s second term in office? Is President Karzai frustrated that the new parliament with a slight majority of non-pashtoons will be too hostile to him? Will he manage to get enough allies firm together to support his bills? Will he ever find new allies inside the legislative assembly? For now President Karzai has no more choices than to go on with the agendas given to him by the legislative assembly or wait for an undesired end to his presidency sometimes soon.