Integrity Score 380
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Chapter 3 continues.......
The prolonged conflict in Afghanistan almost led to the collapse of all state institutions. Most of the institutions either ceased to exist (parliament) or exercised limited functions under the control of armed groups. Much if not most of the trained personnel had been killed or made to flee the country. Soviet training had produced some technical capacity in, for instance, health and engineering. The professional army collapsed in 1992, leaving a vacuum of state power that was filled by various armed groups. The police that served various factions, were corrupt, and routinely beat those they arrested. Police in Afghanistan have always been concerned more with the security of the state than that of the public. They included only a national gendarmerie, which were the paramilitary units expanded during the Soviet period.8 There was no local community policing.
The Afghan judicial system is in a deep crisis of public confidence. Most Afghans rely on customary procedures for dispute settlement. These procedures treat criminal offences as disputes, a practice that undermines the authority of the state. The courts and the attorney general had no legal texts; hence they tended to apply a rudimentary conservative interpretation of the Islamic Shari’a. Due to the role of Islam and the ulema in the judiciary it remains the most difficult sector to reform.
The lack of capacity of the civil service is another major institutional drawback of Afghanistan. The deterioration of the public service has resulted from decades of politicization, purges, and neglect. Fifteen years of war-induced hyperinflation has reduced the value of the highest salary to less than $30 per month, when it was paid, as it often was not.
Hence, many bureaucrats were often absent to earn money in other ways, and corruption was endemic. Provincial and district administration had little contact with Kabul, and given the lack of any reliable form of communication or data management, ministries worked poorly even in Kabul. Afghanistan has not had a functioning parliament since 1973 and collective political actors in Afghanistan are not clearly defined. Politics is highly personalized, tending to revolve around powerful men and their patronage networks.
to be continued.......