Ashraf Haidari, an economist at the Afghan finance ministry, was waiting anxiously at home when a call came from the Taliban: a commander ordered him back to work so he could help run the country once the “crazy foreigners” had left. Like thousands of others working for the outgoing Western-backed administration, swept aside by the Islamist militants’ lightning conquest of Afghanistan, he worried he might be the victim of reprisals.
On the other end of the line was a Taliban commander, urging Haidari to return to his ministry where he works allocating funds to the country’s 34 provinces.
“He said don’t panic or try to go into hiding, the officials need your expertise to run our country after the crazy foreigners leave,” Haidari, 47, told Reuter. To fit in with the norms of the previous Taliban rule, when they brutally enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Haidari grew a beard. After the phone call on Sunday, he swapped his suit for traditional Afghan robes to meet his new bosses.
Reuters spoke to three other mid-level officials at Afghanistan’s finance ministry and central bank who said they had been told by the Taliban to return to work, as the country faces economic upheaval and a shortage of cash.
Sohrab Sikandar, who works in the finance ministry’s revenue department, said he had not seen any of his female colleagues since he went back to the office. The Pajhwok news agency reported that Taliban officials had been appointed to various posts including a governor of Kabul,acting interior and finance ministers and intelligence chief.
Haidari, the economist at the finance ministry, said he didn’t tell his family when he left his house on Monday for his first day at work under Taliban rule to “avoid panic”.
At the office he was greeted by three Taliban officials who told him he would soon be joined by other colleagues and that they needed to focus on sending money to the provinces.
One official, who said he was in charge of security for the ministry, told Haidari that prayer breaks were mandatory. They are not carrying guns inside the building and one of them said we can learn from your expertise,” Haidari said. Unlike some fellow citizens desperately trying to leave.
Source: Reuters
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