KARACHI, Dec 21: Some time today Hamid Karazai government will hopefully be installed in Kabul. If civil order can be restored, and longer term perspectives open up, the country will be needing rebuilding in all conceivable sectors and spheres. Creation of education and health care systems, civic institutions, agriculture, irrigation network, electricity generation, banking and money management, industry, mining, transport and communication, housing schemes and townships, etc., will appear on the agenda as soon as the government becomes functional.

Harsh realities, however, cannot be wished away. Despite Bonn agreement there is scant semblance of order in Afghanistan as yet. No one is expecting trouble free transformation from war and destruction to peace and reconstruction.

However, there seems to be no going back either. There is little chance that twists and turns of politics could push Afghanistan back to the position where it was four months back — isolated and abandoned, when it was allowed by the world and its neighbours to sink on its own.

September 11 events seemed to have given a shrill wake up call to the collective consciousness of humanity. There are indications of realization in the West that their prosperity cannot be sustained by choosing to exclude some countries from the development process that is truly global.

This time round Afghanistan’s neighbours will probably be tempted to compete for their role in peace. India, as reported, has taken a lead by landing some 200 doctors in Kabul to help the upcoming administration in evolving a viable health care system in the country. Iran, Russia and China also seem all geared up to pound on their share in the process.

In Pakistan there is a whole variety of opinions over the prospective role of the country in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan. “We have already lost the opportunity”, said Dr Qaiser Bengali, director, Social Policy Development Centre. “Over the last five years we had a free hand in that country we opted to let it be. Even their currency was printed elsewhere”, he asserted.

There is hardly any doubt that current political dispensation loaded with Northern Alliance nominees is comparatively hostile to Pakistan. “The country will have to earn the trust of new Afghan administration by supporting it in its efforts in the making of Afghanistan”, a source in the government said.

Federal Minister for Communications, Javed Ashraf Qazi was more optimistic. In an interview to Dawn recently he claims that Pakistan is well geared up to provide its services in infrastructure, agriculture, demining, energy, water drainage, fruit business and transportation of goods to our land-locked neighbour.

How far actually is the public and private sector vigilant to facilitate and participate in the reconstruction process will go a great extent depend on how well the government plays its cards.

A political analyst felt that a representative democratic government in Pakistan stand better chances to handle the tricky situation and use it to give the much needed boost to the economy of the country.

Being left behind Afghanistan needs development to catch up with the world. Development is needed there not only for the sake of barely surviving Afghans but also for the sake of peace in the region and the rest of the world. The strategic location of the country, its yet unexplored mineral wealth and most of all its pathetic level of backwardness that served well to turn it into a breeding ground for all shades of terrorist organizations are reasons good enough to furnish self-interested responsibility on the world leaders to ensure development leading to prosperity in Afghanistan.