January 15, 2023

Introduction

Each generation of human beings, collectively, in their lifetime, develops and shapes events that not only have lasting effects on their historical fate, but also the destiny of future generations. These actions can either lead their pathway to prosperity or make them, and the generations that will follow, wander in darkness. The leading and prosperous nations of the world are those whose elected representatives carry out the collective decisions of the people with vigilance, logic and most importantly a sense of duty to not only their future, but the future of generations that come after.

Unfortunately, the history and destiny of the people of Afghanistan followed a bitter path that has brought only successive dark times for generations. A significant part of this history reflects bloody conflicts and wars, even though occasionally with noble goals, such as the causes of independence or freedom; painfully, in the end, the blood and efforts spent have been wasted on consolidating family rules and maintaining personal, ethnic, group, or ideological power. Especially in the conflicts and wars of the last half-century, the absolute majority of Afghans have lost everything and are caught up in a vortex of violence, insecurity, national mistrust, injustice, discrimination, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, seeking refuge, drug addiction, myriads of diseases among dozens of other humanitarian disasters; yet, a few political and proxy actors took advantage of public emotions and trust to advance their personal, ethnic or ideological objectives in tandem with other nations’ interventionist foreign policies. These characters still continue to play the role of political brokers with the sole purpose of finding a chance for further self-enrichment, hence their self-serving hinders the population’s progress towards a positive outcome for a better life with liberty and rights.

From an exogenous perspective, our country, with its unique geopolitical location at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia on one side, and the Middle East and East Asia on the other, continuously attracted the interests of its neighbors, regional and global actors. Whenever these interests were managed for the collective benefit of the inhabitants of this land, this crossroad turned into a corridor for transferring human thoughts, art, and commercial goods;  and its inhabitants in turn positively contributed to progress and human civilization: but, whenever selfish and tyrannical rulers colluded with outside actors, proxy wars were launched and turned this land into an intersection of conflicting interests and a crossroad of violence and blood. This resulted in the destruction of all human material and cultural achievements, leaving behind a sinister legacy in the history of human civilization, the adverse effects of which have affected the lives of successive generations.

Such approaches have brought enormous pain and suffering over the last 50 years, causing generational grievances and extreme backwardness of the country from the caravan of human civilization. Nowadays, the burden of successive historical mistakes weighing on the shoulders of the current generations of Afghanistan. In this short period of our contemporary history, the state governance system and its social and service institutions have been disintegrated multiple times, resulting in and destruction of its material, cultural and social fabrics. Now we are at a historical inflection point, where the life and survival of Afghanistan as a state, is seriously threatened. Procrastination in finding immediate reasonable solutions, based on current realities and lessons learned, can bring Afghanistan to the end of its identity line as a sovereign state and country.

With this understanding and awareness, we believe that every free citizen of Afghanistan, who adheres to the values of human dignity, free motherland and personal liberties, has a responsibility to take action for its own and our common destiny through engaging in social and civic activism and prevent further degradation towards an abyss. Thus,  any civil and political activism at this sensitive historical period have a human-centric and liberating meaning and is focused on achieving freedom and liberty for the present and future generations. The bitter lessons of the past fifty years teaches us to wake up from our historical slumber, identify our friends and adversaries in the light of these painful lessons, recognize the diversity of social and cultural contexts in our land, and shall not allow our collective destiny to be sacrificed on the altar of pity personal and narrow group narratives once again, or feed another round of geopolitical games as the cannon fodders of others’ exploits.

We, a group of Afghanistan citizens, with an understanding of this humane mission, in this challenging phase in the life of our people and country, for the undisputable provision of freedom and equality for all citizens of Afghanistan, for the return of sovereign power back to the people as its rightful owners, have decided to form and establish the “Afghanistan National Liberty Party (ANLP)”, as an organized social entity and political mean to achieve the aforementioned vision and create social cohesion among stakeholders and pursue civil and political actions in accordance with the requirement of our era.

The fundamental principles and values that the ANLP adheres to have been previously publicized by a brief in Dari language, titled the “intellectual framework of the National Liberty Front”. Strategic values in this document oblige us to take action using different political tools towards restoring the power and national sovereignty to the people of Afghanistan based on citizens’ free will and participation, securing its national interests as an independent and unified country and maintaining its territorial integrity. In our view, achieving these fundamental human-centric goals requires two different stages of political action with two different contexts: The first stage: achieving a short-term transitional period, using various political means to lead us to the establishment of a legitimate political authority and restore the rule of law based on the free will of the people of Afghanistan. The completion of this stage will lead to the beginning of the second stage, which is the governance in Afghanistan through political actions and based on the rule of law.

In the first stage, the ANLP priority and focus is to organize and coordinate political actions of the citizens of Afghanistan and influence political policies of interested regional and global actors in order to find a way out of the current political, social, and economic crisis and achieve the establishment of a legitimate political system and the rule of law based on the free will of the people of Afghanistan. This requires the implementation of a program to outline our strategic objectives and short-term political stance on main issues in a clear and detailed manner; this document reflects such a view. To adequately fulfill the requirements of the civil and political actions in the second stage, the strategic objectives and executive goals of the ANLP will be focused on the details of political management, governance, and ways of providing public services in Afghanistan; this will be presented by the ANLP at the appropriate time as its electoral platform upon the fulfillment of conditions for free elections throughout Afghanistan.

We believe that sustainable peace is possible only by establishing the rule of law, based on the will of the citizens of a country. The ANLP hopes that with broad support from the people of Afghanistan and the international community, the implementation of goals set out in this document, which pursues the establishment of a lasting peace, a return to legitimate governance and putting an end to the current suffering of the people and nightmare in the country will be achieved. Implementation of this plan will potentially put us on a path of accepting each other and a humane coexistence based on the value of humanity, liberty, equality and justice, and bring us a life of dignity worthy of free people, human security, and a sustainable well-being.

 

Chapter I
Current Situation and the Main Roots of the Crisis

1. Current Situation

Afghanistan today is the only country in the world that lacks national sovereignty, a legitimate state and governance system and rule of law; and with the passing of each day, we falls behind the caravan of human civilization and becomes further isolated. The reality is that our today’s generation in the country lives in an environment of absolute lawlessness under the rule of a proxy-armed terrorist group. Afghanistan today is like a huge prison, where approximately 40 million innocent people are imprisoned in. All their human and individual liberties and civil rights are stripped away, and they are subjected to daily torturous conditions. The identity of half of the country’s population, the dignified and brave women of Afghanistan, has been denied, and they are deprived of their righteous rights. Discrimination against women, ethnic and cultural minorities are on rampant.  Human lives are threatened and an atmosphere of fear and intimidation dominates the society. On the other hand, with the few educated and talented individuals cultivated over the last twenty years being evacuated, the community is emptied of its technically educated members; in other words, human hope for better days in this land has vanished and the smile on people’s faces dried out.

Following the dominance of the Taliban militant group, as of this writing, around 97% of the country’s population live below the poverty line, unemployment rate has reached more than 40%, and as per international organizations sources, nearly 20 million or more than half of the population of Afghanistan is in urgent need of food. Meanwhile, about 1.2 million children are suffering from malnutrition, nearly 7 million people are wandering in foreign countries as immigrants and asylum seekers, and about 4 million people in the country, mainly the young generation, are addicted to drugs. As mentioned above, the women, who are half of the society, are denied of their basic rights to work, education and participation in the management of the country as a whole. As mentioned above, despite Afghan women’s continuous efforts and struggles and the international community’s pressures, schools are not opened to all girls, and contrary to our religious and cultural values and the social norms of the present era, these innocent children have been deprived of their fundamental right to education.

The universal human rights, citizenship and cultural rights of national and religious minorities in the country are being violated in an unprecedented manner. In addition to the apparent injustices towards all classes and ethnic groups living in Afghanistan, the country Hazara citizens have been exposed to open genocide. The right to freedom of speech and the existence of a free press that Afghanistan experienced in the last two decades and is considered one of the achievements of present generation in Afghanistan has been suppressed. Extrajudicial killings, frequent illegal arrests, torture, violation of personal privacy of the citizens, promotion of violence, suicide attacks and explosions are victimizing innocent civilians on a daily basis

Although Afghanistan has been a victim of terrorism for many years, it is feared that this country once again will become a safe haven for terrorism and a center of promoting and exporting regional and international terrorism. The presence of jihadists from different countries in Afghanistan is considered a potential threat to the stability and security of the region and the world. After more than a year of the illegitimate Taliban authority, no country has recognized the authoritarian and totalitarian regime of the so-called Islamic Emirate of the Taliban, including those countries that supported them all along. At the same time, the ruling group that seized power with guns, has no desire to gain national legitimacy from the citizens of Afghanistan, because it does not believe in the will of the people, their free vote and their civil rights. With illegal seizure of state authority, this violent and paramilitary group has nullified all applicable laws of the country without providing other legal alternatives for governance. With this game, Afghanistan today is facing a de-facto legal vacuum. Drug trafficking and cultivation, which formed the economic base of the Taliban and similar terrorist groups for over thirty years, is continually expanding and has turned Afghanistan into a central hub for drug trafficking and trade in Asia. This is going on while the Taliban leaders, in partnership with actors of a few neighboring countries, aim to loot Afghanistan’s vast mineral and natural wealth and transfer this out of Afghanistan.

The responsibility for this historical disaster, other than foreign countries which conducting their proxy wars in the past five decades that caused political instability in Afghanistan, specifically in the past twenty years, directly lies with those who had been at the helm of national leadership and took strategic policy making decisions on security, foreign policy, economic development and governance in Afghanistan, who factually had monopoly over all the layers of military, economic and political power. This small group of dishonest and foreign dependent elite fueled the spread of financial, administrative and moral corruption by systematically and continuously trampling the law, resulting in a loss of historical opportunities that the people of Afghanistan had for constructing a better society based on trust, achieving peace and sustainable stability and economic prosperity in line with the rest of human civilization. This selfish group jeopardized the sacrifices of millions of people in this land for their personal, family, and factional narrow interests. They paved the way for the ultimate collapse of the Republic and the country’s nascent state institutions. They discredited the country’s traditional institutions; destroyed the dreams of millions of human inhabitants of this land for freedom and a better life. At the end, irresponsibly and immorally, escaped the country and relieved themselves of political and military management responsibilities of the country at the moment of crisis, which undoubtedly accounts as national treason, hence, leaving behind the defenseless people alone with nothing to fend for themselves.

 

2. Main Roots of the Crisis

The roots of the contemporary crisis in Afghanistan can be considered and understood from three historical, internal, and external perspectives. In the internal dimension, the primary sources of the current crisis could be linked to a gap in the existing social contract among the people, which so far has been based on the rulers’ interests and the division of people into rulers and the ruled. Obviously, such a social contract is not acceptable by all the inhabitants of the motherland. Our country has reached this critically dangerous point in its history for not having a balanced social contract based on universal human rights and citizen-centric values, which could provide a suitable environment for convergence, coexistence, and human and economic development. In reality, this is the principal factor in escalating social tensions, which in turn denied people of their right to access political power and solely provided political authority and leadership in the hands of a few families or few proxy groups. This situation in turn, particularly in the last four decades, has been the basis for the interventions of regional countries and world powers to advance their strategic and geopolitical objectives. Hence, the existence of favorable social, economic and political contexts provided a promising ground for the intervention of foreign countries resulting in enormous sacrifices by successive generations of the inhabitants of this land.

In an optimistic judgment, only the decades of democracy in the second half of the 20th century- even in its primitive and immature form- can be considered an initial attempt in civil discourse to achieve a balance social contract in harmony with the requirements of the new era in conformity with modern societies with inclinations to human and economic development. Unfortunately, the coup d’état of 1973 disturbed this shaky substrate of civil activities without offering a better option for political management and solving the country’s economic, social, cultural, and geopolitical crises. The coup d’état of 1973, at the height of the cold war between the two world superpowers and political crises in the region, forced Afghanistan into another sphere of crisis far more complicated and profound than the previous ones. This impulse and fault in the path of Afghanistan’s political management, prepared the grounds for the calculated intervention of one of the neighboring countries that was in pursuit of hegemony and expansion through the use of terrorism, based on a particular religious interpretation, as an instrument of its forward policy to achieve its strategic objectives in the region on one hand, and strengthening its hegemony on the other. This has fundamentally destabilized and harmed Afghanistan’s foreign policy vis-à-vis this neighboring that sought the collapse of Afghanistan’s political sovereignty and statehood and eventually its ultimate control.

The subsequent coups, which had the support of foreign powers, strengthened the political notion among the Afghanistan political elite and paramilitary groups that one can attain political authority with the aid of foreign countries. From 1978 until now, all political and factional groups in Afghanistan consider having a militant faction in concert with one or more foreign countries as the easiest and most straightforward approach to achieve political authority. The internal legitimacy of the government and political management, which must be measured by the will of the citizens through their free votes in polling boxes, unfortunately, had no place in the discourse of any of these groups, or it was only a slogan, which is still the case.

As for the external perspective, Afghanistan has always been a place of interest for the global players and will remain so in the foreseeable future due to its unique geopolitical location at the crossroads of Asia, connecting east Asia with the Middle East on one side and South Asia, including Indian Subcontinent with Central Asia on the other. These features, in contemporary history, has been the source of motivation for the march of the world’s dominant powers onto this geography, including the two powerful countries of Russia and Great Britain in the 19th century, and the Soviet Union and the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. Pakistan and few other countries in the region also did not shy away from competing in this arena, using proxy actors inside Afghanistan and trying their luck in the last decades of the 20th century and continue to pursue this policy to date. Border disputes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which could have found a suitable solution through legal channels and international institutions, have intensified this conflict, negatively affecting both countries and created more grounds for regional political and economic instability. The common geopolitical goal of all global and regional actors and neighbors with a pessimistic and contemptuous view is based on their desire to keep Afghanistan as a weak, unstable, poor, and backward country so they can easily use it as a battlefield for their proxy wars against their rivals; a reality that on a daily basis victimizes innocent citizens of Afghanistan.

With such a background, Afghanistan in the past forty years has been subjected to overt and covert occupations multiple times. All historically painful events, and successive occupations by expansionists were basically facilitated through paramilitary-political groups from within the country, who ultimately bear its historical responsibility. Obviously, the roots of the crisis in Afghanistan are closely interconnected and are multifaceted in both internal and external dimensions; therefore, emphasizing one of the aspects and ignoring other  complexities cannot help to resolve the crisis. This bitter reality demands that the new generation of politicians in Afghanistan shall transparently discuss all aspects of their land’s historically devastating crisis to find an appropriate policy plan for positive change through their own social discourse.

 

Chapter II
Views and Objectives

 

1. State System and New Social Contract

Research in political science and social management, and lessons learned from the bloodstained history of Afghanistan, demonstrate that among the standard political systems of contemporary human societies, “republic” is the only political system that can be established based on the free choice of the people resulting from their direct votes, and can practically guarantee civil rights of all citizens of a country This conclusion is regarded as one of the fundamental values and ideals of the ANLP. We are determined, with accreditation and direct support from citizens of Afghanistan, to adhere to this reasonable value in establishment of the state and to participate in shaping the political management system and governance in Afghanistan. From this standpoint, maintaining the territorial integrity of Afghanistan as an independent and unified state with an indivisible territory is the basis of our political objectives. We consider ourselves obliged to achieve it, and we deem it the duty and responsibility of every citizen of the country. Based on these fundamental values, we believe that the establishment of a republic system in Afghanistan with a decentralized political management structure based on a new social contract can guarantee and provide the participation of all citizens in determining their shared destiny and a suitable platform for fulfilling the accepted values related to the fundamental rights of citizens in a sustainable way.

Our vision perceives a future Afghanistan as a country with a republic government system based on universal and accepted values of human rights, citizenship and democracy. The Republic of Afghanistan will be established on the genuine legal basis emanating from the proposed ”Charter of Fundamental Rights of Afghanistan Citizens ” as the foundation of the new social contract and rule of law. It will ensure the citizens’ rights in major strategic political and economic development decisions and governing their shared destiny. With such an approach, Afghanistan can be placed back on the track of the caravan of human civilization on a progressive developmental path, and with its valuable human and natural resources and capacities, through a value-based and legitimate political management, it will become a land of suitable social, cultural, and economic opportunities for everyone in few decades.

The new social contract, which will include the new Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Afghanistan, must recognize the reality and diversity in the context of human, cultural, and social structures and unique geographical regions to make assure that it can lay the foundations of a citizen-centered and free society in a free country and a free nation in a prosperous land. We believe that with the consensus of the majority of Afghanistan citizens around this intellectual idea, our citizens will once again be able to restore the lost social balance of their country in a context of mutual acceptance and cooperation based on justice and equality. This will prepare a realistic ground for a stable, peaceful life in line with their collective interests, which we deem ourselves obliged to work towards this end.

Based on these, in order to achieve these objectives, which are the true desire of the people of Afghanistan, the ANLP undertakes short-term, medium-term, and long-term political and civil measures at the local, regional and international levels, which will be followed by continuous dialogue and public follow-ups.

 

2. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of Afghanistan Citizens

The citizenship rights of people are viewed as one of the most revered and distinguished values in the ANLP platform. Based on citizenship values, ensuring and securing the human rights of each inhabitant of Afghanistan is one of the main objectives of our political agenda.

ANLP is taking pride that in this document, for the first time in the political literature of Afghanistan, the ten universal values that are considered as fundamental rights of each citizen is being presented here in the form of a draft “Charter of Fundamental Rights of Afghanistan Citizens”, the adoption and implementation of which is one of our main political-civil and value-based objectives. The adoption of this charter as a binding national contract will lay the foundation of organizing and building a citizen-centered republic, in which all other laws, including the constitution of the country will emanate from and be based upon.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of Afghanistan Citizens as a basic historical document includes the most basic universal human rights and values. The agreement and implementation of this charter, the unquestionable access of every free citizen to their fundamental rights will be guaranteed. Indeed, this historical pledge will lay the intellectual foundational stone of a new Afghanistan to fulfill the inspirations of contemporary and future generations of citizens and will ensure the stability of Afghanistan as a country in the foreseeable future among the world community.

In our view, the fundamental rights of Afghanistan citizens include the following ten values; each of them, in turn, is a universal value and a basic requirement for a dignified human life:

1. The right to life
2. The right to freedom of opinion and expression
3. The right to civil assembly and participation in political action and organization
4. The right to education
5. The right to access judicial justice
6. The right to work and economic participation
7. The right to access basic health services
8. The right to access basic social welfare services
9. The right to access personal security
10. The right to privacy and private property

In addition to the mentioned values, based on the consensus of Afghanistan citizens, other universal rights and values could also be added in the list of fundamental rights of citizens.

 

3. Sovereign State and Free Nation

The strength and stability of Afghanistan lies in the complexity and diversity in the fabric of its population, the cultural diversity and diversity of its natural geography. ANLP believes that everyone who lives in this geography, no matter what language they speak, what religion or sect they practice, is an integral part of the free nation of Afghanistan, and as a citizen of this country, they have inalienable citizenship rights and obligations; therefore, ANLP believes in embracing this as a fundamental intellectual value for Afghanistan’s social health, stability and tranquility.

Imposing a specific idea or ideological believe by a person, a group or ethnicity, and monopolizing power to impose the will of a person or a group on others is fundamentally in contradiction with the values of national security and higher national interests of Afghanistan free nation. We believe that Afghanistan can achieve political stability, cultural and economic prosperity, human security, and sustainable peace only by having a sovereign state and a free and capable nation.

The current situation in our country, which is the result of successive and continuous crises and failure in forming national cohesion and power, clearly indicates that the “Nation State” project in Afghanistan, based on external concepts and models that required social, ideological, and cultural assimilation has practically failed, despite persistent attempts by followers of left and right ideologies or nationalists with occasionally indescribable violence during the colonial and post colonial eras. Because this model of nation building contradicts the realities of Afghanistan, is not in harmony with the social structures, diversified fabrics of the society, complexities of the human and cultural contexts, economic capacities, and the structure of natural and human geography of Afghanistan. Any attempt to build a “Nation State” based on such a model to homogenize the Afghan society, even with good intentions or under any title and ideology is futile and can only increase the continuation of the painful crisis.

Embracing the reality of structural complexity and diversity in the context of human and cultural groups in Afghanistan and pluralistic nature of sub-cultures in this land is a value and strength. In ANLP view, a model of “Free Nation” for state building agenda must be based on indigenous realities of the land and the complex and diversified nature of its human culture and fabrics in order to reflect a common sense of ownership for all. We believe that the structure of the government within the framework of a republic shall be based on the universal values of citizen’s rights and participatory democracy, which will encompass the diversity of human and cultural contexts in the country; and can lead to a strong sovereign state and a capable and functional government. On the other hand, it leads to the formation of a free nation with undisputable citizenship rights, where equality is its fundamental value. Such a state and a nation could reflect the realities of human life and sub-cultures of the people who live in this geography and have a shared and common destiny. A strong sovereign state with a free nation can expand the scope of human coexistence, mutual acceptance and integration. It could strengthen the dynamics of human culture and provide a platform for development, individual prosperity, and human security for the wellbeing of all and the prosperity of the shared homeland.

Based on this narrative, everyone who lives in this geography, male or female, irrespective of their language, ethnic identity or religious beliefs is part of the Free Nation of Afghanistan and is an equal citizen with equal rights, opportunities and obligations in the country, and shall participate in determining the common destiny of the country. We believe that in the legal and political framework of “a sovereign state with a free nation,” no group, under any pretense or condition, can ignore the citizenship rights of other social groups, deny their existence and liberties, or deny their participation in the state power; or impose its illegitimate and authoritarian will on other social groups to subjugate them..

 

4. Political Authority and the Issue of Legitimacy

Ultimately, the basic principles and undisputed legal basis of legitimacy in political power and authority is undoubtedly the people’s free will through free elections at different community levels and specific times.

In our view, unless the root causes of the devastating and destructive crisis in Afghanistan are not addressed, it seems impossible to achieve lasting peace and stability in our country and the region. Political power and authority belongs to the people of Afghanistan, which is expressed through the free vote of every citizen in national and local decisions. From this perspective, the essential criterion and yardstick of legitimacy in political authority and governance for political and administrative management of the country can only be measured by the people’s free vote.

National authority is the trust of the people of Afghanistan, and this divine trust must be returned back to them. This task can only be achieved within the framework of a citizen-centered republic system, based on universal values of democracy. Likewise, the strength and stability of the republic system can only be ensured by the active participation of citizens in expressing their will through voting, without hindrance in free elections.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of political power and the legitimacy of those who govern can only be measured and approved by the criteria of the people’s free vote in the elections. The usurpation of political power by force or foreign support, without the support and free will of the people of Afghanistan, or any suggested recipe of a governance without direct participation and free voting of the citizens of Afghanistan is illegitimate and void. Based on these values, we believe that the government and models of governance must be based on the universal standards and values of democracy and be acceptable to all the people of Afghanistan. The establishment of political authority in the Republic of Afghanistan, which will obtain its legitimacy from the will and participation of all the people of this country in shaping their destiny, can restore political and security stability and provide reasonable political means to address the roots of several historical crises. Moreover, it will open a platform of empathy and human and cultural coexistence for citizens of Afghanistan as well as the people in the region.

 

5. Decentralized Governance

One of the main factors in the collapse of political systems and the fall of governments in Afghanistan has been the concentration of decision-making power, policy-making, and execution of policies in the hands of either one person, or a family, or a small political interest group at the helm of the government. Indeed, we are witnesses of how a single person ideas and a small group’s decision making has been the determining factor of a tragic fate in successive generations of people in Afghanistan. It is clear that the unfortunate result of such a management approach cannot be anything other than political collapse, which in turn will lead to a social disaster, as we witness.

In modern history of Afghanistan, while we have not dealt with an outright dictator for long time, the leaders of this country have always acted in a dictator-like fashion by entitling themselves with unchecked, and unlimited power, which they used irresponsibly. Whenever they wanted, they trampled the laws; violated the rights of the citizens, and sacrificed the country’s supreme interests on the altar of their personal, family, or group interests. Except for Sardar Mohamad Dawood Khan, the rest of these rulers chose to flee under the slightest of pressure; without considering themselves accountable to their people and country, leaving the helpless people to an uncertain fate. Therefore, the concentration of unchecked and unlimited power in political and administrative institutions of the country, either in the hands of one person or a small interest group, has historically proved its ineffectiveness and disastrous nature, and in our view cannot be justifiable or acceptable.

With such a historical background and lessons learned, decision-making power, both at the levels of political management and policy-making and at the levels of administration and governance to provide public services, must be distributed horizontally and decentralized based on effective rules. Decentralization of political and administrative management does not mean dividing power between different groups based on percentages or creating additional positions to accommodate those. Such an interpretation of the distribution of power will not solve any of the problems of the people of Afghanistan., but will increase the number of mini dictators and lead the country to further division and potentially even group violence. The past experiences of governance and its catastrophic failures in providing public services for the past two decades is substantiating this claim.

In our view, decentralization of Afghanistan political management system should be done based on the separation and absolute independence of the three branches of government system. Simultaneously, with this separation and ensuring the independence of these three branches, public service management, decision-making and executive powers should be transferred horizontally to responsible and accountable government institutions and from the center to the peripheries based on the law. Meanwhile, it should be mentioned that while we are aware of the urgent need to decentralize the governmental management system, we are also mindful of the threat to the decision-making power of the citizens by those whose interests are tied to tribal or group agendas. Therefore, we reject political agendas and interpretations of such a suggestion based on personal or group interests, whatever they are. Hence, decentralization of administrative management and governance in Afghanistan should be based on facts and comprehensive assessments by experts in such a way that it is legitimate and can simultaneously transfer authority and power to the citizens through their citizenship rights to engage and absolutely guarantee their participation and supervision in this democratic process.

 

6. The Center-Periphery Problem

The great lesson learned from the modern history of Afghanistan is that the people in rural areas do not feel ownership, or being a part of the decision-making mechanism of the country, due to a concentration of political power and administrative decision-making in Kabul. This feeling is further reinforced by the lack of access to public services, especially education and basic health. With no inclination from the elite to find reasonable answers to these social and political challenges, it’s not surprising that the undercurrent tensions between center and the periphery been continuously on the rise. Unless the interest dynamics and the destiny of rural and urban centers are not tied, this will remain the case. From a historical perspective, with the passage of time, unanswered tensions accumulated to a point of explosive confrontations, resulting in the collapse of political systems and governments in Afghanistan.

Whenever the rulers in Kabul fail to address the challenges faced by those in rural areas, the weakness of the central government in Kabul has been exposed to those with conservative and sometimes destructively backward ideals in the periphery. This has led to the ultra-conservative, and often times destructive ideas, of the peripheries to prevail. The failure results in the nascent social and state institutions to collapse and its relevant political structure to be toppled. This repeated routine has made the state in Afghanistan deviate from its normal developmental path in its social, cultural and political arenas.

In our view, a sustainable solution to this political problem must be sought with diligence at two levels: first, connecting the residents of the peripheries to the center of the country through a recognition of their undisputed citizenship rights on the one hand, and the transfer of decision-making powers in local developmental issues and public services to the peripheries, on the other.

Furthermore, providing extensive access to political participation for the rural residents through strengthening democratic institutions in the country is vital, and not only should be considered as a political priority, but as a necessity. The rural citizens must have confidence that they are able to participate in shaping their own destiny through participation, and are able to bring change in the local managements through elections. They moreover must have confidence that they are able to demand accountability from central and local government managers in return for their free votes.  The residents of he peripheries must acquire the feeling of ownership in the country as equal citizens, not as mere subjects who are being used as cannon fodders during the wars only. In managing the relations between center and peripheries, instead of the policies that further promotes a feeling of hatred and malice, particularly towards the rulers in Kabul, and in general towards the political and administrative center of Afghanistan, it is imperative to adopt policies that nourishes a sense of belonging and ownership in all citizens and fulfill the citizenship rights of everyone in the shared motherland.

 

7. Social and Cultural Development

The ANLP pursues a balanced social and cultural development agenda for all citizens of the country based on the universal values organized in the proposed charter of fundamental rights of Afghanistan citizens. We cherish the principle of diversity in the social fabric of our community and recognize each subset as part of the whole civilizational treasure and cultural richness of Afghanistan.

The ANLP feels obliged to protect the highest moral value of the people of Afghanistan, which is the sacrosanct belief in the holy religion of Islam and its related views and to seek its further development. Undoubtedly, the majority of people in Afghanistan are Muslims, and they have always stood up in defense of their religious values and sanctity. This people then and now stand against the attack of deviant groups who want to use religion as a political tool to advance their group agenda or the objectives of other countries.

To preserve the sanctity of the holy religion of Islam and strengthen its high values and to prevent misuse of peoples religious believes, we suggest a halt in political maneuvers and activities under the name and cover of religion. The experiences and awareness of the people of Afghanistan from groups that have offended the noble and sacred values of Islam by chanting religious slogans but acting contrary to those believes and clearly demonstrating anti-religious behavior in practice demand that it is time to protect the sanctity of our religious values and prevent further misuse of religion as an instrument of politics.

By definition, politics is the science of managing social affairs, which should deal with organizing the worldly affairs of the people, such as providing public services and regulating relations between various constituents in a society. Therefore, by separating the private and public spheres in the lives of citizens, political, economic, and social management, the fields of managing people’s livelihood and cultural affairs should be specialized and dealt with in the public sphere with the participation of all people. Today, the time has come for religious affairs to find their rightful place in the private sphere and this supreme ideal and value of the citizens of Afghanistan be fully protected. The high interest of religious values and the worldly interests of society are in recognizing the limits of each of these spheres.

Although last year was full of pain and suffering for all the people of Afghanistan, the brave and dignified women of Afghanistan have since faced the gender apartheid regime of the Taliban. Their struggle for freedom and dignity, which faced with the repression and violence of the Taliban, has increased the pain and suffering for the women in particular. Women were deprived and denied of their basic human rights to work and earn a legitimate livelihood, the right to education and the right to travel. In addition, they were detained and subjected to torture in contradiction to social norms and cultural traditions of the country. The situation imposed by the illegitimate Taliban regime on Afghan women can only be considered a historical shame and a dark period in the history of human culture and civilization.

Women are equal citizens of Afghanistan and should enjoy all their human rights as such. We demand an immediate end to the discriminatory treatment of Afghanistan women, and we want their current misery to end as soon as possible. ANLP rejects any type of discrimination, be it against gender or ethnic, cultural or religious minorities. We recognize that all the people in Afghanistan are equal citizens of the country.

Afghanistan is one of the countries where a large number of its nationals have emigrated and have been displaced in the past forty years due to continuous wars, violence and natural disasters, poverty, and unemployment to Pakistan, Iran, and other parts of the world. Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2021, this situation has degraded further, and much needed and talented individuals who were able to support community development initiatives were forced to leave. Therefore, the continuation of the “brain drain” process is a serious concern for the future development of Afghanistan.

Therefore, the issue of a dignified and safe return of this large population is one of the main objectives of ANLP agenda.

Ensuring the citizenship rights of all the residents and providing public and basic services that include free basic education and training, free primary health services, facilitating suitable platforms for physical and moral growth for children and youth, providing social support services to the disabled and needy elderly and other public services are essential. Providing these services regardless of culture, ideology, and gender is considered one of the main goals and priorities of the ANLP. However, detailed plans and program are beyond the scope of this document. A detailed program for a balanced and nationwide social and cultural development will be provided in the long-term charter of the ANLP, which will include strategic objectives in securing political sovereignty and human development, establishing stable social balance and stability in livelihood opportunities; participatory democracy, sustainable economic growth, and a fair distribution of wealth in the country.

 

8. Economic Development

The Afghanistan National Liberty Party (ANLP) believes that economic development and social prosperity are impossible without a fair distribution of national wealth and a balanced participation of citizens in building and developing their country. While in today’s world, countries can achieve their primary economic goals through foreign investment, we believe that the growth of national capital is also a significant factor in developing the basic infrastructure of an underdeveloped country such as Afghanistan. Therefore, a experts-led discourse on these critical issues must be conducted through specialized policy tools at the appropriate times.

The economic agenda of the ANLP for economic development in Afghanistan is based on the principle that the government must guarantee the right to private property and ownership. In addition to ensuring the physical security of private enterprises inside the country, the dynamics of their growth and development should also be sustainably supported and encouraged in line with national security and human security interests of the people of Afghanistan. For this reason, the government must act as a facilitator to create favorable conditions for the economic activities of the citizens by facilitating creation of modern market mechanisms and its necessary infrastructures, providing a suitable platform for modern and free banking, and a rational tax regime and currency system, and their relevant legal and administrative frameworks and the laws for establishing publicly accessible companies and corporations and creating exchange markets for stocks and commodities to facilitate and encourage public participation in private enterprises. At the same time, it is the duty of citizens to undertake economic and productive activities based on market needs in the framework of competitive private enterprises to participate in building the common homeland.

In cases where the private sector does not have the capacity or ability to undertake large development projects, the government should provide financial and technical support for the implementation of such projects through participation and national partnerships and create grounds for attracting foreign investment.

Considering the structural features and physical and economic geography of the country, human development indicators, and existing potentials, we believe that the main pillars of economic development in Afghanistan shall be focused on these areas:

• Developing and modernizing the agriculture and animal husbandry sector to create livelihood opportunities and replace the import of agricultural commodities to maintain foreign currency reserves and provide food security in the country. One of our fundamental goals is that no citizen of Afghanistan ever shall go to bed hungry in the homeland.
• Development of light industries in the food and agricultural processing sector to add value to raw material and domestic agricultural and animal husbandry products through processing, packaging and improvement for export purposes.
• Development of mineral processing industries and construction materials to add value to mineral resources and export these value-added materials.
• Development of sustainable extractive industries throughout the country to establish heavy industries based on reasonable and sustainable mineral and mining initiatives.
• Development of land transport infrastructures to turn Afghanistan into a transportation crossroad between South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East and to turn it into one of the exchange centers for mineral-related goods in the region.
• Development of energy production industries using natural resources. The development of multi-purpose small hydroelectric dams, the development of hydroelectric dams on the main rivers for power generation, and the development of electric power generation plants using coal, gas, solar, geothermal, and wind resources are vital for Afghanistan future development.
• The development of tourism and hospitality industries and handicrafts across the country in par with the development of air transportation industries and the creation of national parks system with global standards. Therefore, considering the principles of protecting the environment and sensitive ecosystems and environmental sustainability is vital.

Our descriptive development program, which will be reflective of the main objectives of the ANLP, is beyond the scope of this document and will be available in a subsequent publication. In general, a fair and balanced distribution of national wealth, sustainable development for the purpose of providing human security and human development in the country will form the intellectual foundations of our economic development agenda.

 

9. Foreign Policy

The ANLP main foreign policy objectives will be based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, especially with the neighbors, and neutrality of Afghanistan vis-à-vis other countries.

While we seek to secure the national security interests of our country, we also recognize and respect the legitimate interests of all neighboring countries. Moreover, we want to solve the historical problems with Afghanistan’s neighbors based on contemporary political means and lessons learned from successful global experiences.

We believe that our historical needs require that the country’s foreign policy be focused on economic and commercial cooperation and exchange of goods, giving priority to Afghanistan’s neighbors. This will be possible when the people of Afghanistan can restore a legitimate national authority and the rule of law in the country.

The bitter experiences of political instability and war in the past fifty years in Afghanistan and the region show that the continuation of war in this country has proven disastrous not only for the citizens of Afghanistan, but also for other countries of the region and the world. The people of Afghanistan have no enmity with any country; they want to live in peace in their own land with freedom, like all other people in the world. We, the people of Afghanistan, want our country to be an agent for the transfer of culture and wealth for human well-being in neighboring countries, the region, and the world, rather than acting as of a bed for instability or a global hub for drugs and terrorism.

Currently, due to the lack of a legitimate and sovereign national authority in Afghanistan, there is a vacuum in rule of law. Using this insecurity ground and political instability, a large number of international terrorist groups entered the country, turning Afghanistan once again as a nesting ground for active international terrorists. The threat of these groups is firstly directed at the national security of Afghanistan neighbors and then at regional and global security. This situation is alarming for all countries concerned with Afghanistan political developments and who are worried about regional and global instability. Considering the current political and security situation in Afghanistan, if regional countries, especially Afghanistan’s neighbors, do not adopt rational positions in this regard, the growth of regional terrorism will soon reach their borders and will severely undermine stability in the broader region. More than anyone else, it will disrupt the countries in the region, especially Iran and Central Asian countries, and pose new threats and challenges to India and other South Asian countries.

As citizens of Afghanistan, based on lessons learned from the bloody history of the past five decades, we are determined to secure our national security interests to achieve full freedom for all citizens, using various political means and activities. We hope that the neighbors of Afghanistan, rather than supporting terrorist groups, stand with the people of Afghanistan for the cause of political stability, coexistence and peace.

 

10. Security-Defense Policy

Currently, the security phenomenon has become a significant and fundamental debate in our region and the world. The term security is essentially covers wide range of social, political, military, cultural, and economic issues, and a wide spectrum of human security in its general sense, including the individual safety of citizens and the national security of countries.

Unfortunately, since the cold war between the superpowers, the citizens of Afghanistan have been subjected to bitter battles, mainly in the framework of proxy and intelligence wars and consequently paid a great price for it without being the cause of it.

To ensure the human and individual security of the citizens, it is essential to examine security threats at different levels. With expert knowledge of threats, ways to deal with them should be recognized. Furthermore, by learning from historical lessons, it is imperative to make serious changes in the structures, objectives and methodologies of preventing and remedying these threats. Defense threats and challenges to the security of Afghanistan have taken new qualities and forms. Hence, it is impossible to deal with them in traditional ways. Therefore, it is necessary to renew the commitment to deal with these developments, keeping in mind the bitter experiences of our own country in this field and the experiences of others.

 

Chapter III
Suggested Roadmap for the Transition Period

Any type of civil and political struggle to establish national sovereignty that lead to the establishment of a legitimate political system and the rule of law based on the free will of the people of Afghanistan not only has a liberating and humane context, but is deemed noble and vital for the survival and provision of fundamental rights and freedom of the people of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan National Liberty Party (ANLP) presents the following roadmap and measures to achieve the great aspiration of all citizens of Afghanistan for liberty and establishment of the rule of law. We hope that this political initiative create a platform of understanding and an atmosphere of trust for an honest and transparent discourse on issues of national interest for the purpose cooperation among all political actors, who have similar human ideals and consider Afghanistan as an undisputable shared homeland of all its citizens. We believe that the participation of all political and civil institutions and citizens of Afghanistan in this political and civil discourse and activism is of utmost importance to lead towards actions with clarity of purpose and strategic patience and once again pave the way for human and civilizational prosperity for the suffering people of this land.

Achieving the goals presented in this roadmap, first of all requires a series of dialogue among Afghanistan citizens based on their own initiatives and leadership with the support of the United Nations and other interested and effective international stakeholder institutions in order to facilitate a national consensus and agreement on a practical mechanism for a transitional period as a means to return the sovereignty back to the citizens of Afghanistan, establish the rule of law, and enable them for an inclusive participation in determining their own destiny. Convening of the “Grand Founders Assembly” could be as a mechanism for talks among the citizens of Afghanistan to achieve fruitful negotiations..

 

1. The Grand Founders Assembly

The fundamental goal of this proposed roadmap is to find a solution and put an end to the current crisis and shape the path of future political and social development in Afghanistan for a lasting peace and stability. We believe that this goal can be achieved by starting constructive, honest, and transparent dialogue among the citizens of Afghanistan.  Based on this idea, the Grand Founders Assembly can be considered a civil-political institution of the citizens of Afghanistan to convene such dialogues.

In our view, convening the first ever “Grand Founders Assembly (GFA)” inside Afghanistan can possibly be the first practical political step in building consensus to establish a citizen-centered republic system that can represent a legitimate political authority in Afghanistan and ensure the participation and fundamental rights of all citizens of Afghanistan by launching a “transition period”.

The goal of the Grand Founders Assembly is to provide a conducive political platform to reach mutual understanding leading to a consensus for the establishment of a republic system in line with universal values of democracy and liberty, with an effective and balanced political and administrative structure based on a new social contract that reflects the social, cultural and structural realities of Afghanistan. The members of the first Grand Founders Assembly can reach a consensus and agree on the characteristics and details of an efficient and effective political and administrative structure. This assembly will have the duty to provide favorable grounds for the participation of all citizens in determining their shared destiny.

An agreement on the mechanisms in organizing the Grand Founders Assembly and ways to ensure the participation of people’s representatives can be achieved by arranging a broad dialogue among Afghanistan citizens with the support of the UN as the only international political institution acceptable to all the people of Afghanistan and the world community. Afghanistan political and civil society organizations can potentially form a “United Patriotic Front” as a shared political voice for this purpose. Similarly, the civil society organizations of the women and youth can be the principal conductors of this extensive dialogue. The UN political office can facilitate and fund this process.

The following measures should be taken to conduct the Grand Founders Assembly and organize dialogues between Afghan citizens:

1. Based on the proposal of a group of political and civil society organizations of Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council should recognize a safe geographical area inside Afghanistan, either in the central location of one of the geographical zones or several contiguous provinces in the country; guarantee the non-interference of military-political groups in this area; and provide fund to facilitate the process.
2. Based on this initiative, a group of Afghanistan political and civil society organizations convene a preliminary meeting under the auspices of UNAMA will form a temporary working group comprising of 51 members to play the role of the executive secretariat of the Grand Founders Assembly. The members of the temporary working group, which will include qualified and active political and civil society figures, must not be famous for corruption, accused of war crimes, or convicted of felonies. The composition of this temporary working group, which is formed to manage the affairs of organizing the first Grand Founders Assembly, will be announced publicly through mass media. The temporary working group, which should reflect the interests and views of all political and cultural spectrums of the diverse society in Afghanistan, has the task of working on the required mechanisms for election of the members of the Grand Founders Assembly and the convention of the assembly. The same 51 member working group, with a division of labor, will be temporarily in charge of managing the daily administrative affairs of the secure geographical area until a time of an agreement on a transitional government by the GFA. The administration of the safe zone is managed by implementing relevant portions of the laws and regulations approved in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that are applicable in the context and conditions of this safe area.
3. The security of the safe zone will be undertaken by a group of volunteers and previously trained military professionals of the former ANSF under the supervision of the United Nations Security Council.
4. The temporary working group reports of all its daily activities to the citizens of Afghanistan through public media and communications on a regular basis.
5. The members of the temporary working group or their family members are barred from being candidates or appointed in the transitional government institutions that will result from the agreements of the GFA.

With the convention of the first Grand Founders Assembly, the following actions will be taken.

1. First Step:

Duties of the Grand Founders Assembly:

Before dealing with any other issues, the Grand Founders Assembly must come to a consensus agreement on universal legal values contained in the proposed “Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the Citizens of Afghanistan) and adopt it as the most fundamental guarantee of the rights of citizens in Afghanistan, which will be the foundation of all subsequent social contracts. Furthermore, the Grand Founders Assembly must approve the charter and declare its implementation as binding to guarantee the civil rights of the citizens. This historical decision will be the most important decision and consensus of the representatives of the citizens of Afghanistan in the first Grand Founders Assembly.

Based on the first decision of the Grand Founders Assembly, upon approval of the first Grand Founders Assembly, the “Charter of Fundamental Rights of Afghanistan Citizens” will be considered binding, permanent, non-disputable and non-interpretable.

1. Second Step:

Immediately after, the Grand Founders Assembly convenes comprehensive discussions on the issue of establishing a three-year transitional authority and arranges the technical framework, an action plan and timetables for the subsequent activities of the transitional government. With the establishment and announcement of the transitional government, the duties of the first Grand Founders Assembly terminates.

In order to avoid conflict of interest in the interim government, the head and members of the interim government cannot run for office in the upcoming presidential elections or become members of the next cabinet.

1. Third Step:

The objectives and responsibility of the interim government in the three-year transitional period, according to the timetable approved by the first Grand Founders Assembly will be managing the bureaucracy of governance, preparing and facilitating free national elections, drafting the constitution, taking into account the experiences gained from the effectiveness of previous laws in the country and opinions of the citizens of Afghanistan obtained though opinion surveys or referendums.

Upon completion of the drafting of new constitution, the transitional government will present the final draft to a national referendum in the country, which is supported, supervised and monitored by the United Nations relevant organizations, and eventually submit it to second session of the Grand Founders Assembly, which is called and convened by the interim government for approval of this draft. Upon approval, the new constitution will effectively becomes binding as the cornerstone of a new social contract in Afghanistan. With the implementation of the new constitution, the role of the Grand Founders Assembly is considered terminated.

The transitional government, which cannot be extended beyond its agreed timeline, must implement the new constitution by immediately organizing a free national elections in order to form a new legally mandated government according to the timetable approved by the Grand Founders Assembly.

The interim government in the transitional period must provide a conducive legal and legitimate means for the emergence of the Republic of Afghanistan under the new constitution by conducting a transparent, nationwide, and simultaneous to elect central government leaders, parliament members, provincial councils members, governors, and mayors with the participation of all eligible citizens who vote.

After the election and the announcement of its results, the three-year transitional period will end, and the rule of law and legitimate elected government by the citizens of Afghanistan based on their new social contract within the framework of a legitimate political system will be established..

We believe that the people of Afghanistan and our homeland have many talents for human development and prosperity of the country. With a unified and strong will of the people, and with the blessing of Allah the Kind and Merciful, it is not possible to build a better Afghanistan as a shared home for all its citizens. With empathy and acceptance, we can overcome today’s problems to achieve our individual and collective human aspirations as well as the values of our fundamental rights within the framework of a republic political system based on the rule of law and the political sovereignty of the citizens to put an end to the fifty years of this miserable crisis in Afghanistan.

 

2. Concluding Words

We, the people of Afghanistan, have only two options at this historical and fateful moment: either we give in to the continuation of the crisis and leave a legacy of historical shame and the inability of several generations to find a reasonable solution to our historical problems; or we take appropriate and reasonable actions in order to get out of this deplorable historical abyss and protect our human, cultural and civilizational existence and our land from the danger of total annihilation.

We want to acknowledge the bitter reality of our time and the fact that no one else will try and act benevolently to solve the crisis of Afghanistan unless the citizens of Afghanistan mobilize themselves around this noble goal and take political and civil action. Today, many powerful countries face fundamental security problems and struggle to secure their own national and security interests. The absolute priority of every country in the world is to ensure its own national security interests and goals, a contemporary political axiom.

Therefore, expecting any liberating or benevolent humane intervention from the world community is a false hope and a misleading fantasy. Only our own actions- the citizens of this land- can be effective, and the salvation of Afghanistan from the terrible abyss, into which it has fallen  lies in the capable hands of the young generations and their civil and political movements.

If, despite several protests and demonstrations expressing the legitimate demands and aspirations of the citizens of Afghanistan, especially women, to restore their fundamental rights, and despite the political pressure on Taliban groups from the international community on the Taliban regime, this militant group continues to assert its illegitimate positions, insisting on coercion and ignores the legitimate and rightful rights of the people of Afghanistan, then the sole responsibility for the continuation of the crisis and human suffering will be directly on the shoulders of Taliban leaders and their fighters and their regional and international supporters.

Unfortunately, more than a year after the coercive power grabbing, the Taliban groups, still have not adhered to any of its commitments with the international community, they have not obeyed the national and religious values of the people of Afghanistan, they  grossly ignored the international conventions that Afghanistan is a signatory to; and until now, the Taliban have not shown any willingness to talk with others to find an acceptable solution in establishing a legitimate political authority and rule of law in the country in the framework of our national interests and adherence to the rights of the citizens.

We believe that any struggle and effort to get out of the current crisis is the right of the citizens of Afghanistan. There is no doubt that the final victory in this righteous struggle for the cause of freedom and establishment of a legitimate national sovereignty and rule of law will be achieved sooner or later, using various political means and instruments. However, the preference of all citizens of Afghanistan to achieve this human aspiration is through a broad civil dialogue, in which all political and civil actors participate to assure that no more tears from the suffering mothers and no cry of a hungry child in Afghanistan is heard of again.