With escalation of insecurity and deterioration of political condition, hope for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan is dying in the hearts of common Afghans and the public-government trust gap has widened like never before. The withdrawal plan of NATO troops is to put Afghanistan at further menace of economic downfall and return of Taliban government.

The international commitment to support Afghanistan for a long term beyond 2014 and Afghanistan’s strategic partnership agreements with a number of economically and politically strong countries are encouraging. Nonetheless, all those efforts will bear no sweet fruit for Afghanistan if this country remains corrupt and incapable.

In the last decade, Afghanistan had to lay down strong foundations for a sustainable future development. Nonetheless, this country continues to remain highly instable and its achievements are greatly fragile.

This is not the Afghanistan its people had hoped for when the Taliban regime were thrown out of the government and the international community enhanced its presence in this country and generously provided aids for its reconstruction and development.

To lead Afghanistan out of the chaos it is facing today, the next presidential election is being deemed as crucial. Afghanistan political parties and analysts urge for a fraud-free election and outside Afghanistan too there are resembling views.  Key to Afghanistan's future stability will be a credible and inclusive presidential election in 2014, followed by a constitutional transfer of power. President Karzai has repeatedly affirmed his commitment to a peaceful, constitutional transition of power at the end of his second term.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC), whose authorities have historically been under direct influence of presidential palace, must be autonomous in real terms so that it performs its responsibilities in the best national interest. An election marred with allegations of fraud – as were the previous two presidential elections – can cause Afghanistan collapse all-at-once as such elections would no more be acceptable to the people of Afghanistan.

Therefore, the international community which has been working to put Afghanistan on the track of peace and stability must make sure that measures for conducting a free, fair and transparent future presidential election are in place.