KABUL: Afghan citizens are worried about what they said a growing economic crisis as billions of dollars of the country are still remained frozen.
The Kabul Times correspondent have launched a series of interviews with a number of Kabul citizens as follows:
Ghulam Sakhi who is now re-siding in Kabul called that the reason behind most of the people flee from the country lack of work and poor economic conditions.
“Even in Kabul, I could’nt find a job to save my family from poverty and misery. If the country’s wealth was unfrozen, uplift projects resume running, the people will find work,” Sakhil who is also an educated person and came from the country’s northern Takhar province told The Kabul Times.
He asked the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to work hard to convince the international community to not keep drying aids to the destitute Afghans so that they could be provided with job opportunities.
According to him, it was good news, if he could find a work of only five days a month, but un-fortunately, he fails.
He said a large number of people are seen along the roads everyday waiting for work, but most of them fail and return home empty handed.
Another Kabul resident Husna said she has been washing clothes in the neighbors houses in the past to earn some cash for her four member families, but cannot continue the work now.
“When I go door to door to ask the neighbors for washing clothes, they said they will wash their clothes themselves, because they have no enough money to pay for others,” she, who has completed high school but couldn’t join university, in the wake of poverty, complained.
Some people, including government employees have now to use handcarts to vend along the roads and sidewalks, as their salaries are yet to be paid. Concerns about unemployment, poverty and the poor economic situation of the country rises after Afghanistan’s biggest financial supporters, including the World Bank stopped direct financial aids to Afghanistan.
Although, the World Bank (WB) has assured that it will keep continue providing assistance to Afghans through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN), but this is not a good news for the country’s fragile economy.
The WB, as the major economic backer of Afghanistan, has funded dozens of projects in Afghanistan, including development, reconstruction, health and some entrepreneurship for the Afghan people, should resume the flow of direct aids to the poverty-battered nation.
Meanwhile, officials of the Afghan-Japan hospital and some other health workers said that not only they have not been paid for four months, but that health services of the hospital had dropped to a low level.
In the meantime, spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Deputy Minister of In-formation and Culture Zabihullah Mujahid, recently assured that efforts were underway to resolve the problems.
“This is a matter of US policy and efforts are being made to overcome the problems as soon as possible,” said Mujahid.
In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), another major financial supporter of Afghanistan, has already suspended aids, in the pretext of insecurity, while economic experts see the suspension a sign of economic downturn, because it would directly harm the ordinary people, increase joblessness and most importantly fuel militancy.
The Afghan people hope the government of the Islamic Emir-ate of Afghanistan to pave the ground for the aid flow in order to create jobs and save the people from the ongoing poor economic situation.
The Kabul Times
