The Afghan Power Sharing Deal

"The powerful have always preyed on the powerless. That’s how they became powerful in the first place." -Tyrion Lannister

In September, 2019, Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani, running for a second term, had won by around 12,000 votes. Abdullah Abdullah, his rival, claimed that the only reason Ashraf Ghani won was because he pressurized the Election Commission to rush through the process of examining the spoilt votes- votes in which more

than one candidate is chosen or a mistake is made in the system.

On 17th May, President Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-

sharing deal, making Ashraf Ghani the President of Afghanistan and appointing Mr. Abdullah's team to make up half of the cabinet. Mr. Abdullah is now the Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, making him in charge of peace talks with the Taliban.

Taliban views the Afghan government as a puppet in the hands of the White House, and their only demand as of now is for the government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in one go. They're demanding the release of 15 senior leaders who orchestrated large scale attacks. These prisoners are the Afghan Government's biggest leverage against them, and it is risky to give into such demands. That is precisely why President Ashraf Ghani has agreed to release only 1,500 prisoners.

The President's refusal has led to Taliban carrying out an average of 50 attacks every day.

Unfortunately, Taliban will continue to attack the Afghan forces and innocent civilians in order to heap pressure on the government, which would increase the chances of securing a deal favorable to the Taliban in an effort to stop the violence.

Written by: Haneen Farid