2011 is gone. A year which we had wrongly expected to be decisive about the conflict in Afghanistan did not succeed to have any significant change in ground realities about the insurgency, talks with Taliban and promises of good governance and fight against corruption by the Karzai Administration. We had started the year with parliamentary crisis which lasted throughout the year.

From its inauguration and the stalemate on election of Speaker to the establishment of the pity Special Court by President Karzai in attempts to alter the election results to produce a pro-government parliament, to the internal tussle of MPs on different issues time and again reflecting the bitter truth about Afghanistan. It took five rounds of election for failed attempts to choose the speaker of the second Wolesi Jirga [Lower house] in Afghanistan's history.

A special commission was set to either suggest changes in the regulations for election of the speaker, or recommend other solutions. During the stalemate, we saw episodes showing the bitter truths about Afghanistan that it journeyed a long way to come over the civil-war era and ethnic strife.

Insurgency, corruption and lack of capacity have solutions, but the issue which will keep Afghanistan a crumbling failed state will be the ethnic and tribal rifts in politics and government institutions, of which we saw several episodes throughout the year. These same factors have been the reasons why Afghanistan never became a stable functioning and successful nation-state in its entire history.

Furthermore, the manipulation by the Karzai Administration in the parliamentary crisis took turns and twists. The Independent Election Commission Chief after a meeting with the President and Chief Justice came up with a verdict cancelling results of 9 MPs who were replaced with new ones.

Among them, a female MP Simin Barakzai took a principled stand and went on hunger strike. She set up a tent camp near the parliament building. On the 12th day of her strike, on October 14, Afghan Police in the dark of night dragged her out of the tent, beating her supporters, and took her to hospital.

The Ulema Council of Karzai issued a statement condemning hunger strike as Haram. They said, "It's forbidden in Islam to reject drinking and eating. If anyone dies because of hunger strike, they will go to hell. Hunger strike is un-Islamic." Later she ended the strike when Mujaddadi urged her, with promises from Karzai.

In beginning of the year, US officials started giving hints and American media reporting about secret talks with Taliban. But despite the intensive efforts, the talks with Tayab Agha in Germany and Qatar could not produce any breakthrough.

However, at the end of the year, now it seems the "Taliban office in Qatar" is what all those 'secret talks' during the entire year could produce. Let's hope the real talks and a genuine reconciliation will become a reality in this year and produce effective results towards the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

The US also failed to achieve the desired objectives of regional cooperation and support for the end-game in Afghanistan in the Istanbul Summit.

Afghans continued to be the worst reactionary among over 60 Muslim countries. Over 35 people were killed during the days of protest demonstrations across the country against an American pastor Terry Jones who had threatened to burn Quran.

The most horrible of the violence was murder of several UN staffers in Mazar when such a protest demonstration stormed the UN office and butchered its several foreigner staffers. But in contrary and utter hypocrisy, we remained silent against suicide bombers blowing up in the name of Allah, and reciting the name of Prophet Muhammad before blowing up among innocent civilians, in worst blasphemy to Islam, and there was not a single protest rally against it.

Many expectations were tied to the Af-Pak Commission for cooperation between the two countries about the insurgency and stability in the region. The Commission included the military and intelligence chiefs and executives of both countries.

Before it could make any significant development, the downward spiral in US-Pakistan relations after the death of Osama Bin Laden weakened the prospects. Distrust and accusations took surge against after the assassination of Ustad Rabbani. At the end of the year, the word was that the commission might be dissolved.

Osama's death was indeed an important milestone in the war on terror. However, it has had little impact on the conflict in Afghanistan. The reaction on streets was very joyful, unlike Pakistan, where homage rallies have been taken out in major cities.

There was not a single rally of support, neither in Kandahar, the heartland of Taliban hosts of Bin Laden nor in the Tora Bora mountain region where the most wanted man on earth used to hide in caves. But there were funeral prayers in absentia and homage rallies for Osama in many major Pakistani cities, including Karachi and Quetta.

The controversial Loya Jirga called by President Karzai bypassing the parliament to discuss the Strategic Partnership agreement was political maneuvering to set grounds for future constitutional manipulation for power extension and other moves.

The last few months of 2011 witnessed birth of three major political coalitions in Afghanistan. The year ended with a more robust alliance of the political forces who offer alternative to the policies of President Karzai.

In November, heavyweights such as former Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud, Haji Muhammad Muhaqiq, Abdurrashid Dostum and others launched the National Front. Prior to that, the Right and Justice party of technocrats and intellectuals was launched under the leadership of former Interior Minster Hanif Atmar.

Later another alliance called the National Coalition was launched under the leadership of former rival of President Karzai, opposition leader Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Main personalities of the new coalition include Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Younas Qanooni, Ahmad Behzad, Noorulhaq Uloomi, Syed Ishaq Gilani, Dr. Kazemi and others.

Meanwhile, six ministries continued to be run by acting ministers for more than a year in complete violation of the constitution. President Karzai has yet to appoint a new Chief Justice and some members of the Supreme Court whose tenure has ended.

Taking the opportunity, I wish you all our readers a happy New Year. May 2012 bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. Let's hope 2012 will not be another year of failure for Afghanistan to achieve stability.