On Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), the White House has said the US government wants it to be signed in weeks, not months. Formerly, end of December was the deadline for finalizing this agreement. Although Washington prefers the security deal to be signed as soon as possible, President Hamid Karzai seems not to be in hurry. He has not indicated any date for this purpose. It cannot be assumed that the President does not know the importance of this agreement as even a layman knows where the failure in BSA will lead Afghanistan to. If President Karzai has any alternative way, he must present it to the public.

Connection between the April presidential election and BSA cannot be ruled out. While addressing the participants of the Loya Lirga held on BSA in November, President Karzai said, "This pact should be signed when the election has already taken place, properly and with dignity.” Some political pundits say President Karzai sees the security agreement as the last tool in his hand to gather support from the US for the candidate of his own choice. It should also be noted that people will go to vote with more interest when the future of the country does not remain as ambiguous as today. In other words, the sooner BSA is finalized, the better impact it will have on the next election. 

Meanwhile, the President Karzai has also talked of lack of trust between him and the US government. It is important for both the President and the US to fill this trust gap as Afghanistan and US have been strong allies; they need to fill this gap so as to safeguard the rights of the people of Afghanistan. Already the country is suffering much as a result of politics and now it is highly interwoven in interests of individuals and specific groups. 

The current scenario is not in the benefit of our politics, economy and the process of development and reconstruction. The Palace has to come up with a clear-cut instance on the security deal. The President has to either sign the BSA in a timely manner or present viable alternative strategy for countering security and economic challenges that Afghanistan might face once the US-led forces are out of the country by the end of this year.