afghanistanadministration proved as inept as its predecessors when it came to solving
the country’s financial crisis.
The shirkat state-run monopolies instituted by Zabuli in the 1930s
were perpetuated throughout the era of Zahir Shah and President Da’ud,
though by the 1960s more small-scale private enterprises were permitted.
King Zahir Shah had been an avid agriculturalist and with the help of the
United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (fao) new strains of
seed as well as tree and vine stocks were introduced. The fao also set up
basic veterinarian services, including immunization for domestic animals,
and instituted locust and pest control. One enterprising individual intro-
duced apples and other pip fruit into the Wardak area, which soon became
a major export to Pakistan.
Even so, by 1978 Afghanistan was still in the bottom five Third World
nations by all indicators. It had one of the highest adult illiteracy and
child mortality rates in the world; life expectancy was in the mid-40s
and typhoid, hepatitis, diphtheria, measles, polio, leishmaniasis, and eye
diseases such as trachoma were endemic. The government built new hos -
pitals and schools in Kabul and provincial centres, but there was barely any
health service provision in rural districts, while rural doctors and teachers
were poorly trained and badly paid. As for any public health system, this
was virtually non-existent in rural areas and even in the capital the service
Kabul’s Chicken Street area of Shahr-i Nau. In the 1970s this crossroads was a popular
tourist spot and its shops frequented by middle-class Afghans. Sigis Hotel was also
notorious among travellers for it cheap accommodation and the easy availability
of hashish and other opiates.