The Pardon Game

Available for over a year

The Afghan drugs mafia is rich, powerful and entrenched, with connections running into the heart of the Afghan state. But a new, multi-million dollar counter-narcotics justice system has started to get results and is putting senior traffickers in prison. So when people heard that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had pardoned five traffickers, they were stunned. This week’s Assignment looks into allegations that the pardons were part of a political deal, ahead of presidential elections on the 20th August. There will also be some unusually frank criticism of the Afghan president’s move from the United Nations, the Afghan public and even from within Mr Karzai’s government.