[Dawn] Members of an Afghan grand assembly debating a crucial security pact with the United States voiced concern Saturday at President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
's insistence it will not be signed until after April's election to choose his successor.
Kabul and Washington have agreed a joint draft of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), governing the presence of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014, which is being debated by the "loya jirga", a gathering of about 2,500 chieftains, tribal elders and politicians.
But in his opening statement on Thursday, Karzai told the meeting that the painstakingly negotiated deal would not be signed until after next year's presidential election, sparking a strong response from Washington, which wants it signed by the end of this year.
US officials warned that failure to sign the pact, which governs the conditions of any post-war American counter-terrorism and training mission in Afghanistan, could jeopardise crucial aid to the war-torn country.
The White House has said it needs a swift decision to start planning the movement of any US troops, and warned that President Barack Obama
I am the change that you seek ...
had not yet decided whether or not to keep American forces in Afghanistan.
"Karzai doesn't have the right to say this, he is making a mistake," said Sebghatullah Mujadidi, the head of the jirga.
"They (the Americans) have accepted all the conditions set out by him and us. It would hurt Afghanistan if he does not accept it," he added.
Amir Mohammad Akhnudzada, a delegate from the volatile southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, said: "I think President Karzai should respect the decision of the Afghan elders, and all the delegates want this Bilateral Security Agreement signed as soon as possible."
Earlier, Karzai's front man Aimal Faizy told AFP that the president would explain the reasons for his stance in his closing speech to the jirga planned for Sunday.
On the penultimate day of the four-day jirga on Saturday, delegates debated the legal jurisdiction for US troops who remain in Afghanistan after 2014.
A draft text released by Kabul Wednesday appeared to show Karzai had bowed to a US demand that American troops would not be tried in local courts if they are accused of crimes.
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Pakistan on Monday angrily denied allegations by Afghanistan's senate chief that President Pervez Musharraf ordered a suicide attack against him, escalating tension between the neighbours. Sebghatullah Mujadidi, also a former Afghan president, made the accusation after he escaped Sunday's bombing with minor injuries. Two attackers and two bystanders were killed. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam condemned the attack on Mujadidi but rejected his accusation that Pakistan was involved. She pointed out that President Karzai had said that investigations were underway and there was no evidence of who was involved.