Many years ago, when the money of foreign aid was flowing like a violent stream into the country and I was not much aware of the corruption being done on the name of development projects, I was contacted by a person who was absolutely illiterate. He was in need of a person who could read and write well in English and who should have enough knowledge of making project papers. Not more than a couple of years ago, he used to be a normal property agent but within two-three years, he had become famous in taking different projects from international NGOs and donor agencies and had made good fortune in it. Now, he was a millionaire and had large number of projects with him. The person, who was helping him in the documentation of the projects, had left him and he was in need of another person to replace him. And after that, I came to know about the strange and mysterious stories of projects.

When democratic government was formed in Afghanistan after the regime of Taliban, international community rushed to Afghanistan to establish this war-torn country. Different countries took different tasks; some were responsible for making communication infrastructure like roads, bridges and others, some took the responsibility of rehabilitating education sector by making schools and universities, some worked for the proper establishment of government offices and related setup and many more like these. Some of the major stakeholders like the United States and Britain were busy in a number of fields. As the events after the fall of Taliban regime had followed briskly so it was not easy to come up with a proper plan in such a short period of time. At the same time, Afghan government was in the initial stage of its establishment and was not able to handle all the tasks and responsibilities, so the funds for the above purposes were disbursed through donor agencies and non-government organizations. But there was a lot to be done in every field and it was not possible for these organizations to run after every single project and from here the story of projects started. Local organizations and firms were invited to come up with projects and with this, large number of fake NGOs and other welfare organizations were made that were never meant for the claims that they made. Thousands of houses and bungalows were rented that took to sky the prices and rents of places in Kabul and other parts of the country. Many office workers were hired and thousands of jobs were created.

Evidently, it looked as if country had started growing and there was a great hustle bustle by the economic activities created by this artificial boom of economy. It gave birth to numerous unbelievable stories. Many people, who had nothing before starting a project, grew into millionaires in just a limited number of years. I am sure, it was the greatest pace that any economy had ever experienced with which some people were able to pile up money with least effort and even less time. At the same time, some other relevant aspects were also unbelievable. Having a look at the actual earning of people in the country and other countries in the region, the rent of houses could have never been more than 2-3 thousand dollars but we saw that some houses were rented on as high as 30-40 thousand dollars per month. This is such a huge sum of money that it seems to be unbelievable in some of the most expensive cities or countries of the world. A computer system, that was available for 5-6 hundred dollars in the neighboring countries, was sold and purchased as high as 2000 dollars. All these were possible because of the extreme greed that at once engulfed the minds, thoughts and even characters of people. It was also because of the extraordinary amount of money that was flooding into the country and there was intense pressure on all the stakeholders to spend that money in the least time possible so that they should be able to allocate new and improved budgets for the following year. With this, everyone was happy and everyone was making money. Everyone, from top to the bottom, made himself prosperous. The foreigners, who were responsible for allocating budgets and approving projects, were the most successful in benefitting from the chance while the local NGOs and their contractors were also not behind their masters.

All these gave birth to numerous drastic outcomes. First, corruption became the trademark of country and it was the reason that Afghanistan stands second in corruption the world over. Now, it is a general belief that corruption and dishonesty is the only way to make quick money in the least time possible. Secondly, there were so many people who at once became rich and this easy and unfair outburst of money created so many social problems. First, they could not easily withstand the immense power and authority that they had at once attained by this easy money and thus they started behaving abnormally. It is the reason, the violation of law and other ethical and moral conducts greatly increased these ten years. Secondly, they adopted a lifestyle which was not in congruence with the culture and standards of our society and this created a great gap and divide between the different classes and sections of society. One gets surprised as how people were able to earn such large sums of money in such a short period of time that they soon built numerous luxurious penthouses and villas in the most expensive parts of the city andbuilt such grand shopping malls and markets. But most painful was the fact that the large sums of money aimed for the development of country was badly wasted and there did not come any kind of visible change in the conditions of the common people. Of course, some buildings and roads were made but at most part, limited number of people were able to build grand houses and purchase vast property in Dubai and other parts of the world.

Now that foreign troops are leaving the country and rumors of the return of Taliban and other militant groups is on sharp rise, things are returning to normalization. Foreign donor agencies and NGOs are completing and winding up their projects and unemployment is on sharp rise. The salaries are shrinking and rent of houses has plummeted badly. With this, it is hoped that soon a day will come when the artificial boom in Afghanistan will come to an end and everything will settle normally. All these are, no doubt, frightening to the majority of the masses but large number of people are also happy that now people in the society are going to be normal and they will lead more indiscriminative life. In such circumstances, all the eyes are beamed on the signature of the president on most-debated BSA Deal which would decide upon the future of this nation. If this deal is signed, foreign troops will remain, thwarting the fears of the return of Taliban and they will be able to continue their lives in a safe and secure society. At the same time, this deal would give confidence for investors and businessmen who are thinking of rolling up all the activities and fleeing from the country. Keeping aside the negative and positive aspects of this deal, it is awaited like fresh blood by the feeble body of Afghan economy and society as well.