The Afghanistan Citizens in Islamabad

In mid-May last year, I was transferred to Islamabad in the neighboring country Pakistan to remotely monitor JEN’s projects in Afghanistan as program officer. Since then, it has been a year. During this past year, security in Afghanistan has shown a glimmer of improvement, but has also become worse since last August’s presidential election. For this reason, we international staff reduced our business travels, and remotely monitored 100% of our project site in Pakistan this year.

Since we do not have direct access to our project sites in Afghanistan, it felt pretty distant, but I realize it’s not actually so. At the Islamabad office, you hear the Pakistani staff members talking to the Kabul staff members on the phone in Pashtun, which is their common language. Once you step outside, you will see that the greengrocers in the market or the bakers from whom we occasionally buy lunch are Afghans. Many Afghans even run grocery stores we go to everyday. Despite being new to this place, you encounter many Afghans here and there. How many Afghans in Islamabad do you think await their return to their home country?