Corruption and Mal-Governance Issues in 21st Century Afghanistan: The Result of Regular Foreign Intervention or an inside Saga
Creators: name: KHAN, Dr. SAAD ULLAH
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: classificationCode: 440708
subject: Public administration

description: Allama Iqbal called Afghanistan the ‘heart of Asia’. He predicted that if Afghanistan is in turmoil, entire Asia would be. To a greater extent, he was right due to Afghanistan’s uncanny geo-political importance. Afghanistan as an organized nation state was born in 1709 when the Hotaki dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Abdali rise to power in 1747.For the last four thousand years, Afghanistan act as a buffer or gateway for the invaders who want to reach India. Its inhabitants, the valiant Pashtuns or Afghans had effectively administered Indian subcontinent for the last several centuries. In 18th century, it was the only nation in the Indian Subcontinent that successfully checked the British advancement in Central Asia. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the ‘Great Game’ between the British and Russian empires. Following the Third Anglo- Afghan War of 1919 and the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi, King Amanullah started modernization of the country. He moved to end his country’s traditional isolation by establishing diplomatic relations with the international community and, following a 1927–28 tour of Europe and Turkey, introduced several reforms intended to modernize his nation. A key force behind these reforms was Mahmud Tarzi, an ardent supporter of the education of women. He fought for Article 68 of Afghanistan’s 1923 constitution, which made elementary education compulsory. Up to Soviet invasion Afghanistan bloomed as an educated and technologically advanced nation with remarkable literacy ratio. <b><i> </i></b> During the Cold War, after the withdrawal of the British from neighboring India in 1947, the United States and the Soviet Union began spreading their influences in Afghanistan. Between 1979 and 1989, the country experienced a major war between the US-backed mujahedeen forces and the Soviet-backed Afghan government in which over a million Afghans lost their lives. This was followed by the 1990s Afghan civil war, the rise and fall of the Taliban government and the 2001–present war. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help maintain security in Afghanistan and assist the Karzai administration. <i> </i> The decades of war made Afghanistan the world’s most dangerous country including the largest producer of refugees and asylum seekers. While the international community is rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan, terrorist groups backed by ISI as well as other global powers are actively involved in a nationwide insurgency, which includes hundreds of assassinations and suicide attacks. In addition to this, the regular intervention of Afghanistan’s neighboring nations in its internal politics has been one of the major reasons for the destabilization of the nation as well as mushrooming of terrorist activities in South Asia. The neighboring nations are culturing terrorists in order to gain a level of influence in the god-forsaken nation. According to the United Nations, the insurgents were responsible for 80% of civilian casualties in 2011 and 2012. As far as the issues of Corruption and mal-governance are considered, it arises due to regular foreign intervention (in one way or the other) and civil war for the past 35 years which almost destroyed the very basic framework of the nation. The Soviet invasion indirectly gives rise to Warlordism, which ultimately proved fatal for the common Afghan. Infinite number of travelogues and writings by western intellectual claims the fact that corruption in pre 1979 Afghanistan was far lower as compared to Iran and highly corrupt Pakistan. Ironically, the U.S. led occupation in the name of ensuring liberty and freedom to common Afghans proved instrumental in turning Afghanistan as one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. The Americans have failed in almost everything to made Afghanistan a peaceful state. The fundamental needs of common men were never addressed satisfactorily <i>.</i> Anthony H. Cordesman(September 2010), national security expert and a former Reagan Pentagon official, in a Center for Strategic and International Studies report entitled ‘How America Corrupted Afghanistan’ clearly stated that ‘It is time that we as Americans — in government, in the media, and as analysts and academics — took a hard look at the causes of corruption in Afghanistan. The fact is that we are at least as much to blame for what has happened as the Afghans, and we have been grindingly slow to either admit our efforts or correct them.’ In a nutshell, this paper will zero in on the deterioration of Afghanistan from a modern state to a collapsed corrupt nation. The paper will try to review its past, present as well as future and will try to search the answers that how a modern peaceful nation becomes the most chaotic and corrupt nation on the planet. As the nation has been heavily exploited by foreigners as well as the selfish rulers, a peaceful, strong and corruption free Afghanistan will be a boon for peace and prosperity in the South Asian region. Besides, the paper will made a rigorous attempt to explore the different forms of corruption prevalent in the contemporary Afghanistan and what steps must be taken to counter it.