AFGHANISTAN: It’s Boom Time for Pakistani Construction Workers

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec 7 2004 (IPS) - Lured by greener pastures and a chance to make quick money, skilled construction workers from Pakistan are leaving the country in droves and making their way, across the border, into neighbouring Afghanistan.

And according to construction company bosses, Pakistani workers feel comfortable leaving their country because of the perceived Afghan stability offered by President Hamid Karzai and being paid in U.S. dollars in Kabul.

Shah Nawaz Khan, the owner of a construction company supplying cement to the country, rising up from the ashes after decades of violence, said Krazai’s winning of Afghanistan’s first-ever presidential elections in October was the best thing that happened to Pakistan-based building contractors.

He said there has been a sudden boom in the construction industry in the Afghan capital Kabul.

”We supply cement to Afghanistan for which we receive money in advance. We earn good profit despite the fact that we pay bribes to the Afghan militiamen in various checkpoints before our supplies reach Kabul,” Khan told IPS.

Currently, most of the construction materials are imported because Afghanistan does not produce them or produces limited amounts. Cement, which is one of the most important components in construction, is currently imported from Pakistan and Iran. Several small cement production facilities exist in Afghanistan, but require extensive renovation.

Like Khan, Gul Nazir, too, is smiling these days ever since Karzai was elected. For him, business has never been better.

The Pakistani contractor is a labour recruiter for skilled construction workers to be placed in Afghan building sites.

”There’s stability now with Karzai there. Pakistan workers want to work in Afghanistan and the fact that they will be paid in U.S. dollars there attracts them,” he said.

”Pakistani labour is cheap.. In this way, we both (the contractors and workers) earn a sizable amount,” added Nazir.

Nazir said foreign companies leading the reconstructions efforts in war-torn Afghanistan were paying workers in cash.

”This is a significant attraction, given that many workers are always not paid on time in Pakistan,” he pointed out.

The most sought after construction workers in Afghanistan are masons, carpenters, electricians and crane operators.

Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as Afghanistan’s first elected president and has led the country since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 by U.S.-led forces.

Afghanistan endured massive destruction over the past 23 years of sporadic war and instability. Some of its provinces such as Kabul, Kandahar, Bamiyan and Balkh were virtually destroyed.

Kabul and its surrounding areas bore the brunt of the civil war in the 1990s, and were the focal point of armed conflict throughout the past two decades. The scope of its destruction was far beyond any other province in the country.

In the mid-1990s, the radical Islamist Taliban faction seized control over southern Afghanistan and Kabul. Taliban offensives in northern Afghanistan in the late 1990s sent hundreds of thousands of new refugees into Pakistan and Iran and displaced large numbers of people within Afghanistan.

After the establishment of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan in April 2002 many local construction companies began operations, especially in Kabul, but lacked experienced staff.

Rows after rows of destroyed houses and piles of rubble are probably the most visible remnants of the war-torn Afghanistan. It is the major urban crisis in Afghanistan resulting in people living under extreme conditions. At present, international organisations are leading the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan using foreign companies to rebuild physical infrastructure.

Gul Wali, an Afghan contractor who migrated to Pakistan 20 years ago started his career as a mason in Pakistan. He told IPS he went back to Kabul after Karzai won the October elections and started his own construction business there.

”I got the services of 150 Pakistani masons in Kabul. Only 22 of them have passports, while the rest are working on my personal guarantee,” he added.

Wali went on to say that his Pakistani workers got paid 10 to 15 U.S. dollars a day, which was much more than what they got back home.

”In Pakistan they only get an equivalent of only two dollars a day. But then there’s no guarantee that they’ll get work everyday. On certain days they are just idle,” he said. ”On the other hand, in Afghanistan, there more than enough work for everyone. It’s a matter of finding enough people.”

Likewise, carpenters are having a field day in Afghanistan.

”We work almost seven days a week and I get paid 25 dollars a day compared to an equivalent of four dollars a day in Pakistan,” said Taus Khan. He said he also earned and extra 10 to 15 dollars, on top of his daily wages, if he worked overtime.

Khalid Khan, a mason by profession can thank his lucky stars that he went to Afghanistan. Things were so bad, work wise, in Pakistan that he thought of switching professions.

”A fellow mason took me to Kabul. And I am the most sought after man as far as my work is concerned,” he said. ”I now provide my services to big building contractors.”

He said the work in Afghanistan paid well and he wants to bring his family, from Peshawar, to live with him in Kabul.