QUETTA: With foreign fighters or various denominations taking refuge in the provincial capital, it is only understandable that the feeling of insecurity across Balochistan is much more intense than it ever has been. In economic terms, however, the relative prosperity in neighbouring Afghanistan, based on American cash inflow, has also spilled over and Quetta has been a recipient of ill-gotten money as well.

The US is reportedly spending around $10 billion a month and the Afghans are running away with part of the capital to the whole world, and a sizable chunk is available in Quetta as well. Small bank branches have received deposits worth billions of rupees from these Afghans. The money is transferred by local elders, politicians, traders, businessmen and, not to forget, drug barons.

There is a clear visibility of the phenomenon in the shape of huge buildings, big houses, thousands of luxury cars and so on.

Recently, local customs officials told newsmen that around 50,000 smuggled or illegal vehicles are plying in Quetta and its adjacent townships and settlements. Most of the luxury vehicles have been brought from Afghanistan without registration and other formalities.

After the recent poppy crop in the adjacent districts of Afghanistan, even students are earning sizable revenue by plucking the poppy. The students of border regions cross over to Afghanistan and work as unskilled help in the fields. As could be seen, the money coming from Afghanistan is massive, but has nothing to do with the formal economy. It is all informal and confined to the few who have linkages with one mafia or the other.

Some Afghan traders and businessmen had initially tried to invest in the formal economy, but the move was fizzled out as more powerful elements in the power corridors encouraged the criminals to try out kidnapping for ransom. The investors ran away, as anybody would.

“Huge flow of money has changed the patron of business in the provincial,” said independent economist Dr. Professor Mohammad Sadiq. Quetta’s traditional Qandhari Bazzar, famous for wholesale dry fruit and food grain business, is flooded with foreign exchange shops. Old tin-houses in residential areas in central Quetta have given way to huge shopping malls and markets. All these are signs of the same pattern, he said.

Business leader Sardar Raza Mohammad Barrach said reconstruction in Afghanistan was a blessing for Balochistan. “The people earned money in Afghanistan, transferred their capital to Balochistan but nobody was their to guide them on investment opportunities,” the Sardar said, adding that, as a result, Quetta today has huge concrete structures as shopping plazas, big houses and informal businesses.

He said that agriculture and livestock could have made better use of the money, but in the absence of guidance, the whole money went down the wrong channel.

Wali Mohammad Nurzai, President of the Balochistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however had a different view. He said business did increase manifold in Quetta and other areas of Balochistan post 9/11, but the deteriorating law and order situation and kidnappings for ransom played havoc. “Kidnapping for ransom has increased 30 to 40 per cent during the last two years which badly affected business in Quetta, Chaman and other areas,” Wali Nurzai said, adding that the situation also increased unemployment and affected transport business.  Kamal Khan, another business leader, shared his views, and appreciated the US presence in Afghanistan which, he said, had had a good impact on Balochistan economy.