Naseebullah Khan
Afghanistan is in a serious crisis. From humanitarian catastrophe to the economic meltdown, from food hunger to healthcare issues, from educational decline to poverty and unemployment, and from diminishing women’s rights to lowering HDI-there is no plausible indicator that reflects a meaningful and prosperous life in Afghanistan. On the other side, despite focusing on its due responsibilities as a government to pull out the country from the dangerous whirlpool, the Taliban have been repeating the old mistakes. The government has started public punishment by flogging 27 people including one woman in Charikar capital of Parwan province. They also started the public execution on December 7 of a murderer in Farah. They have also banned female education. While rudderless governance, corruption, political vendetta, and victimization are at their peak. There is no human development indicator that should be appreciated in the country. Pathetically, the HDI score of Afghanistan in 2022 is 0.496 which ranks the country on number 170th out of 177 states.
The SIGAR in its report said that malnutrition in November 2022 had reached a dangerous level as 4.7 million Children and pregnant women were at risk of acute malnutrition. On the food security front, the UNICF at the start of this year had warned that 18.9 million (which is half of Afghanistan,s population) will have severe food insecurity by 2022 (the authenticity of the report we have been witnessing right now). While human rights watch says that 90 percent population is facing some form of food insecurity. Astonishingly, as per the global hunger index, Afghanistan ranks 109th among 121 countries.
The economy of the country has been devastated and its GDP has contracted. The world bank says that Afghanistan,s economy has contracted 30 to 35 percent and per capita income has gone down. As far as poverty is concerned the UNDP says that 97 percent of the population of Afghanistan could plunge into poverty by 2022 whilst Unemployment has grown up to 25 percent- that is one of the worsts in the world. The WHO further fears that 24.2 million people are in need of urgent emergency and humanitarian assistance. It states that in 2023, the number of people who would need immediate healthcare assistance will be 17.6 million
Concerning the education sector, not to talk of science and technology, even basic education is in the doldrums. The situation has become gloomy and has faced more shocks after banning female education and the closure of hundreds of schools and universities because of a lack of budget. The literacy rate in 2021 which was 37.5 percent would be impacted more after banning women’s education and the lack of budget for salaries class of the education sector. On one side, the females of Afghanistan have been deprived of education on the other side, poverty and unemployment have dimmed their future owing to which their parents have started early marriages of their girls to halt forced marriages of their beloved with the Taliban (which we had witnessed in Taliban 1, where Taliban had married young Afghan girls (despite, Taliban’s early marriages). Abubakar Siqique writes in Gandhara that Afghans are increasingly marrying their young daughters to avoid forced unions with the Taliban. Afghanistan is a heaven of natural resources with no extraction mechanism. What the Taliban had to do was attract foreign companies for investment by making suitable ground. Unfortunately, they have failed to do so as a matter of fact their priorities are flogging, public executions, and creating fears among the masses. How can fear be the basis of government in the twenty-first century in a state of heterogeneous nature and in a state where resistance against barbarism has been in the blood of the dwellers?
Taliban should have focused on issues of governance, eradication of corruption, ending mine and thine, bridging power struggles within the Taliban, focusing on infrastructure development, etc. their government is busy wasting their energies in the wrong direction. History testifies that a rudderless, leaderless, and short-sighted government has never succeeded or would in the future. Taliban had an opportunity to turn the pages of history, to burn the midnight oil for the progress of the country, to not repeat the previous mistakes, to provide a safe haven for Afghan intellectuals, to go shoulder by shoulder-with the international community, to start a new era of brotherhood and reconciliation in the country – are heading towards a lustreless path of devastation.