On national television channel ‘Milli’, the visit of President Karzai to China was given extraordinary coverage. President and his huge delegation visited different Chinese cities and were shown with numerous important Chinese buildings and museums. President showed special interest in a fountain of dancing water in his visit to one of the Chinese cities. The Afghan delegation also held meetings with the Chinese President and the Premiere and other important ministers and officials. They also signed a number of agreements which would definitely catalyze the economic activities in the country. China also agreed to donate 250 million Chinese Yuans as aid to Afghanistan. No doubt, this visit of President was successful and would definitely have good results in the long run but few things were strange and questionable in this visit. Why not a smaller and more relevant delegation was taken to the visit instead of a big force of ministers, advisors and others? Why not the visit kept limited for official meetings and irrelevant fun tours were either eliminated or decreased? Why not this visit kept limited instead of prolonging it for 4 days especially when country is in continuous crisis of insecurity and in dire need of vigilant control?

Foreign visits of politicians and government officials have always been a matter of great frustration for common public. For the name of holding meetings with Pakistani officials, countless visits have been made by officials, a number of ministers and members of High Peace Council but as we see, these visits have not resulted in anything except to waste the scarce money of this poor country. Similarly, our politicians also like to pay visits to different countries on the name of improving the relations of country with the rest of the world but till now, few of these objectives have been achieved.

In these visits, millions of Afghanis of public have been wasted and there is no one to ask about the result of these visits. On the other hand, our footballers who brought home the joy of winning South Asian Cup were struggling to find money for their air-tickets to participate in the said cup.

The expenses of these visits are especially felt in condition when poor masses of country are struggling and many development projects must be undertaken. The money spent on these visits can be spent on so many other useful purposes aimed for the development and progress of people. At the same time, these expenses on foreign visits have also become a laughing matter in the world as many developed countries don’t spend that much amount on such visits as is the case with Afghanistan.

It is hoped that all the future visits would be made more meaningful with limited number of necessary delegates and efforts made to keep the expenses at the lowest so that the money saved should be used for other useful and meaningful purposes.