Mr. Sartaj is from Pakistan. Like thousands of other Pakistanis, he is also working in Kabul for almost two years now. He teaches Afghan children in an international school of the city. With his high academic qualification, vast experience in a number of international schools and his well-organized and effective teaching methods, he is equally liked and respected by the students and parents. With his background, he could have easily availed a better job in a foreign country but his case is slightly different from others who work in Afghanistan as they are well paid in Afghanistan comparing to their own country. Now, they have spent many years and they feel themselves a part of the society and country. Similarities between the two countries fill the gaps in few months and later on, they feel themselves absolutely comfortable in Afghanistan.

One of the workers from Pakistan says, ‘The biggest similarity we have is religion. We go to mosques and offer prayers together and it is an occasion when differences between Afghans and us become almost invisible. This is the true spirit of our religion that brings people together and removes the differences. Then there are large numbers of Afghans who have spent considerable time in Pakistan. They can speak our language, they also like Pakistani foods and tea and they have good memories from Pakistan. It is the reason why, we are greeted warmly whenever we meet anyone who has ever lived in Pakistan. Similarities in language also bring ease to us and our children and our children have smoothly got adjusted in the Afghan society.’

However, this is only one side of the picture. On the other hand, they are sometimes teased by anti-Pakistan comments of people, bothered unnecessarily by police or security forces and they face organizational discrimination due to their background. In the words of Mr. Sartaj, ‘I feel myself more Indian than a Pakistani. We felt slightly uneasy when people asked about our country and we had to tell them that we belong to Pakistan. Later on, I found out that when I say that I am from India, I can be safer of the invisible discrimination of people.’

Large numbers of foreigners, mostly Pakistanis are working in Kabul and other places of Afghanistan. They are mostly in technical or skilled jobs like teaching, engineering, construction, printing, and other fields where we don’t have skilled workers of our own. Due to three decades of war and destruction and weak system of education, we don’t have skilled labor of our own and rely on people from abroad and the most affordable and convenient ones come from Pakistan. Majority of our private university professors and schoolteachers belong to Pakistan as their academic qualification and skills meet the requirements of our schools and universities. In the field of construction, printing, electrical and mechanical engineering, road surveying and construction and numerous other fields, we again look for foreign workforce due to inadequate supply of skilled workers from inside the country. The present setup is smoothly working for both the countries. If foreigners are getting good salaries in our country, we are also filling the gap of lack of skilled labor. Both of them are indispensible and depend badly on each other.

However, from time to time, some politicians try to revitalize their political career complaining that presence of large numbers of foreigners have added to the worsening situation of unemployment in the country and all the foreign labor should leave the country so that more job opportunities should be created for the jobless Afghans. But this demand turns out to be hollow and baseless when we look at the ground realities. It is a fact that local labor is cheap and easy to hire but local labor is not skilled enough to meet the needs of the country. In such circumstances, hiring foreigners remains the only option to run the machinery of the country.

It becomes clear that the foreigners are in fact helping us running the mechanism of the country by filling the gaps that cannot be filled by our fellow citizens. All the foreigners deserve our respect, appreciation and due recognition of their services.

In regards of Pakistan, some points must also be kept in mind. The relations between the two countries are indispensible. We have the biggest local trade relations with Pakistan, thousands of Afghans go to Pakistan every month for medical treatment, trade and visiting their relatives. People on both the sides of border share relations and they have to cross the border to meet their relatives. It remains a fact that the Pakistani government might have done ill with Afghans by continuously interfering in their internal issues but it is also a fact that millions of Afghans who spent decades in Pakistan as refugees are happy of the Pakistani masses. Pakistani people treated them nicely and Afghans had complete freedom to buy property, travel to different places, get education and had equal access to all the civic facilities.

It must be kept in mind that Pakistan is our neighbor and we can only prosper if we try to keep good relations with our neighbors. On the other hand, a country like Afghanistan, which is dependent to other nations in its economy, defense and all other factors, can hardly afford to have any enemies and should make its goal to make more and more friends and supporters.

The strategy of President Ashraf Ghani is the most suitable who visited Pakistan in his first instance and made efforts that the relations between the two countries reached to the most favorable and elevated level in the history. Along with the government, it also becomes the responsibility of media and civil society to work to enhance the relations between the two countries. Such a strategy might or might not benefit Pakistan but it would definitely benefit Afghanistan.