Kabul,In the Era of Renaissance

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Trip Start Feb 27, 2002 Trip End Mar 12, 2002 Next
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  Kabul, Afghanistan
Friday, April 18, 2008

Afghanistan is a landlocked country of rugged mountains,tribesmen and ancient history.It is situated between the central and South Asia.Due to it,s important geo-strategic location,Afghanistan has always been a crossroad of different nations and chessboard of politics for superpowers.

Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan.It,s nearly 3000 years old city.In 1776,Timor Durrani,son of Baba-e-Afghan(Ahmed Shah Abdali,Father of Afghanistan as a nation state in 1774)made it the capital city of modern Afghanistan.It has an estimated population of 3million while whole Afghanistan has the population of 31,889,923 people.Predominantly it,s a city of Dari speaking people.Dari,a dialect of Persian language is the official language of Afghanistan.

This city has seen many phases of destructive wars since soviet invasion in 1979 till the fall of Taliban regime in 2001 by American attack.Due to tremendous devastation and massacre millions of Afghan migrated to neighbouring countries Iran and Pakistan.

Personally I have been associated with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Afghan Commissionerate for last six years.Since that time I have visited Kabul twice as an interpreter of Dari language in 2002 and 2003 for Japanese
developmental projects and good will visit by famous Pakistani negotiator Barrister Samin Khan.

In February 2002,I was sitting in my officeand my boss was talking with me on the ongoing situation of Afghanistan.I could never imagine that I was already selected for visiting Kabul with Mr.Amano,the regional manager of Asia for Mitsubishi Corporation,another senior Japanese official Mr.Sakurai and Pakistani fellow Mr.Sharfuddin.

Actualy just after the establishment of first interim government in Afghanistan led by President Hamid Karzai,Kabul,a war torn city turned as a center of all UN agencies,N.G.O,s,foreign missions,heavy investment and trade opportunities.Our
Japanese delegation was also visiting Kabul to help Afghan government in different sectors of reconstruction.

Mr.Amano and Mr.Sakurai had already reached in Kabul by UN Chartered flight from Islamabad while me and Mr.Sharfuddin had to travel by car from
Peshawar to Kabul.Actualy that time there was not any airline except UN Chartered flight operating from Pakistan to Afghanistan and vice versa.However at present both P.I.A(Pakistan International Airline)and Ariana Airlines(Afghan national airline)have started
their flights in both countries.

We hired a private jeep with security guards from Torkham,a border crossing town which is situated two hours drive from Peshawar.Then it takes more five hours to reach Kabul city.we were enjoying the Pushtu and Dari songs of Farhad Darya,a famous Afghan singer.

By passing through unpaved roads of famous mountains of Tora Bora,tunnels,debris of soviet tanks,tribal city of Sarobi,historical city of Jalalabad on the way,finaly we entered in Pul-e-Charki,the entry point of Kabul.The residence of Dr.Sima Samar,then Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan in Shahr-e-Now,a luxurious area of Kabul was our destination.Dr.Sima Samar had also assumed the post of cabinet minister for Women affairs.

I was very surprised to see her wearing western clothes with a long Iranian type coat and scarf covering hairs.Because I had never thought that Afghan women could also be liberal.By the way I also had many misconceptions and wrong images about Kabul like other Pakistanis.Generally it comes in our mind that this war torn city would be deprived of education,culture and liberal values.While my misconceptions and ideas turned completely wrong by seeing Kabul myself in the era of renaissance after longtime of wars.

After our introduction with Dr.Sima Samar,a heavy and traditional dinner was served for us.It was consisted on Qabuli Pulao(Rice with beef,fried raisins and pieces of carrots),Kebab Gusphand(Kebabs of lamb),Qorma Alu Bukkhara(a stew with sour plums,lentils and beef or chicken),Sheer Biranj(Rice Pudding)and other different dishes with Afghani bread(long and oval shaped,topped with sesame
seeds)called Naan.

Next day our delegation visited the ministry of health for an official meeting with Dr.Sohaila Siddiqui,another Afghan lady minister for health.We finalized the programs of medical aids for different hospitals.We also visited some government
hospitals of Kabul like Jamhoriat Hospital,Wazir Akber Khan and a very famous military hospital called 400 bed hospital.In fact the condition of these hospitals were very miserable.But at present every advanced medical facilities are easily available in Kabul.

By passing through the streets of Kabul,I never felt that it,s a war torn city.Because everywhere I found expensive Japanese cars,splendid
restaurants and crowded shopping centers.Amano and Sakurai,our Japanese officials wanted to buy whiskey,so we went to Supermarket Hameedi where all imported goods including wine were easily available.

That time it was the single supermarket in Kabul.While one can find many big supermarkets and shopping malls all around the city.Kabul City Center,a
modern-style nine story tall indoor shopping mall is one of the big shopping malls.We also passed through Wazir Akber Khan,the most expensive area of the city.It is totally occupied by foreign missions,offices of UN agencies,relief organizations and the residences of Afghan ministers and high officials.

Today,it was 3rd March 2002,we were traveling in our car Toyota,called Saracha in Afghanistan.It is the most popular car in Kabul.Suddenly we got shocked by seeing that our car was shaken very badly due to a waive of earthquake in Kabul.Thank,s to Almighty God we remained safe otherwise it was an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the
Richter scale and 1800 people died all over Afghanistan.

It was a big news covered by global media and our families were very worried.We also wanted to call our families about our safety but the system of telecommunication was severely damaged by earthquake. Anyhow we contacted through satellite phone.That time there was not any cellular facility available in Afghanistan.However during my second visit of Kabul in October 2003,I was surprised to see big mobile markets,Internet cafe and electronic centers all over the Kabul.

A privately owned company,Afghan Wireless pioneered the advent of modern day telecoms in Afghanistan.But still unfortunately the rates of calling from Pakistan to Afghanistan is very expensive than calling to other countries.It costs
nearly 30 rupees( 1/2 US dollar )for one minute cal

Next day we needed to exchange money so we went to Farushgha-e-Buzurg,a big market of money exchangers.We exchanged some US dollars and Pakistani rupees called KALDAR all over the Afghanistan.Afghani is a currency unit of Afghanistan.In 2002,One
Pakistani rupee was equal to 20 Afghanis.While these days the value of Pakistani rupee is decreased due to influx of US dollars and heavy investment in Afghanistan.These days 1000 Pakistani rupees is equal to nearly 788 Afghanis.

I remembered it very exactly that during my second visit of Kabul,I was surprised to know about the currency difference in National Bank of Pakistan in Kabul.But similarly I was glad to meet Pakistani bank staff.NBP was the first foreign bank in Afghanistan which opened it,s branch in Kabul.In addition two other Pakistani banks,Habib Bank and Punjab National Bank have also started their branches in Kabul.These banks are really facilitating the heavy volume of trade between two neighboring countries.

Today our delegation was invited by Japanese embassy at IC(Intercontinental Hotel)situated on a hilly area near Bagh-e-Babar,tomb and garden of first Mughal emperor Zaheer-ul-Din Babar.It was also under construction,because it was also effected by rocket shelling during wartime.

These days after renovation this famous hotel has 200 air conditioned rooms.It was heavily guarded by the troops of ISAF(International Security Assistance Force).Because it is always occupied by foreigners and most V.I.P,s of Afghanistan.At present there are nearly 41,741 troops from 38 nations of ISAF and NATO for the assistance of Afghan government to maintain peace and security in Afghanistan.I also took a commemorative picture with Captain Paolo from Italy with his armored vehicle of ISAF.

In addition those days the security situation of Kabul was not quite stable and satisfactory.That,swhy every night curfew was imposed there from 9 PM for whole night.However these days the law and order situation of Kabul is quiet safe and normal.

After this lunch,we moved towards a famous park of Kabul called "Park Shahr-e-Now".It was full of childrens,young couples and shopping stalls.One old Afghan ice cream seller, Mr.Baryale was very happy by seeing the return of the spring of happiness after a long time of war.

Next day we wanted to see war effected areas,so our guide took us to to an area called Kota Sangi.It was totaly destroyed by heavy firing and rocket shelling.We also saw a destroyed Cinema called "Cinema Baharistan".These devastated buildings were depicting the real destructions and losses of war.we also went to see Kabul Football Stadium which was renowned as a place of fear and execution during Taliban regime(1996-2001).

On the way we also stopped at Shahr-e-Barq,an area of Kabul where Eid Gah Mosque,the largest mosque of Afghanistan is situated.It was built by King Abdul Rahman in 1893.The rich Islamic architect could seen in this historical mosque.

After taking some pictures we moved towards the ministry of Women Affairs.There was a large que of Afghan women clad in Iranian style long coats and scarf instead of typical Afghan veil(Blue colured net veil)called Chadari.Dr.Sima Samar told us that these women were working here before Taliban regime,and now they want to re-join thier previous jobs.

I was vey glad and surprised to know that every third person in Kabul could understand and speak Urdu language.Because most of the Kabul,s poulation called Kabulis have lived in Pakistan for long time as refugees.Even some of the top most leaders and politicians like President Hamid Karzai,Dr.Sima Samar and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani have also lived in Pakistan as refugees or for other reasons.

Due to working in UNHCR and having good acquintances with Afghan refugess,I had some friends in Kabul.So I also decided to meet them.Marina was one of
them.She was working in UNHCR-Kabul and studying in Kabul University as well.She was very surprised and happy to meet me there.It was Marina who inspired me
to visit Kabul University.

The experience of visiting Kabul University was very nice.Kabul University is called Pohantoon Kabul.Everywhere young students were seen waiting for classes or sitting in tea shops.Kabul University is currently attended by approximately 7,000 students,of which 1,700 are females.This university was built in 1931 during the
regime of King Zahir Shah.Including Kabul Institute of Medicine and Kabul Polythechnic,an engineering university one private and nine government universities are opened in Kabul.

I was realy impressed by seeing the development of Kabul,that how this war ravaged country is going on the path of remarkable progress in every sector such as higher education,women participation in politics,telecommunication,economic and modern culture.I wish that Kabul could again resume it,s position as a hub of economic and cultural activities like before soviet invasion in 1979,when there used to be the celebration of a cultural festival,Jashne Kabul every year in Afghanistan.

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