Increasing Salaries for District Governors While Teachers and Doctors Struggle: Where Is Justice?
Economic challenges in Afghanistan continue to escalate, and recent remarks by a Taliban spokesman regarding salary policies have sparked widespread criticism.
He justified the increase in district governors’ salaries as being due to “their difficulties,” while downplaying the severe financial hardships faced by teachers and doctors, arguing that, because of the large number of salary recipients, increasing their pay was not feasible.
Critics argue that this approach ignores the government’s responsibility to ensure a minimum livelihood for public service employees and shifts the burden of subsistence onto citizens, effectively telling them to “seek their sustenance from God.”
The spokesman also defended differences in pay and benefits between Taliban personnel with jihadist backgrounds and other government employees.
According to him, only 20% of government employees are “Emirate-affiliated”, with the remainder from the previous administration a stance observers see as systematic discrimination, dividing employees into “Taliban” and “non-Taliban.”
Sources in Kabul indicate that 12 billion Afghanis have been allocated to “Emirate-disabled personnel” and families of Taliban martyrs, highlighting the discriminatory prioritization in social support.
Regarding returning migrants from neighboring countries, services are reportedly provided until they reach their homes; however, reports indicate these costs are funded by the United Nations.
Taliban officials have repeatedly demanded that aid distribution be channeled through their offices, a move critics say is intended to portray the Taliban as the primary providers of assistance.
