On April 5, a 20 days long construction work of a 100-bed hospital, specially dedicated to coronavirus infected patients, was completed in the south Herat province of Afghanistan. The decree of initiating the project was proclaimed by the Afghan President Dr. Ashraf Ghani as the number of positive cases in the country, Herat in particular surged. Construction of the hospital has cons, nonetheless, faced a backlash from several financial and economic analysts who considered the project a trivial wastage of the national budget. Amid the startling premonition of the novel COVID 19, another issue triggering the public concerns is the political deadlock between the acting president and the ex-Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah over the result of the elections, as a result, the US warned a cut down of $1 billion from a significant portion of USA aid to Afghanistan, if the two parties fail to conclude the issue.

The USA cut down of financial aid, the allotted budget to combat COVID 19, and the political impasse between President Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are the most debated issues that need to be urgently addressed to avert potential financial repercussions that the country will thus be confronting with. A report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which highlights the negative economic consequences for Afghanistan in the year 2020 predicted to be resulting from the Ghani-Abdullah face-off and the pandemic coronavirus.

However, In a live address to the nation, President Ghani assured the Afghans that Washington’s decision to cut its aid to the country would have no negative impact on Afghanistan, the president furthered. “I can assure you that the reduction of USA aid will have a direct impact on essential parts of the government and key sectors (e.g. defense and security) but, it won’t have any impact on the lives of the people,”  Abdullah called for the continuation of US aid, saying that it the aid was extremely important for Afghanistan. “While we thank and appreciate the USA for its aid for the Afghan people and its efforts for an intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at the advancement of a just and permanent peace, we would like to emphasize that the continuation of this cooperation for the achievement of national interests and the restoration of peace has high importance for our people,” Abdullah expressed in a statement to the media.

According to experts, the USA decision of aid cut down will further weaken the economy of Afghanistan in the ongoing year and the following, because the war-torn country is already suffering from different angles. Tabish Forugh, an economic analyst, said Ghani and Abdullah’s continued failure to agree on a unity government would induce some figures in the leadership of the Afghan security forces “to separate their way from the political leadership of Kabul,” resulting in Washington’s decision to cut aid. He said, “There is no way that Afghanistan will be able to fill the gap and compensate the losses in the budget given its dysfunctional, foreign aid-dependent, failed economy. The political implications of this act will be more destructive than its immediate economic downsides.”

Given the clumsy situation, the country is stranded in an impending political and economic crux, a blunder by any political figure concerning the USA’s decision of aid cut, if implemented, would harm the country’s economy both in short and longer terms. Besides, the government should rather spend the national budget on preemptive and immediate measures for the time being to combat the novel COVID 19. Investment should be made on providing health facilities through medicines and ordering for a nationwide lockdown instead of construction of a hospital that drives a substantial amount of budget, also the government could allow private hotels and other public compounds for corona infected patients separated from the rest of the people, this way the money overspent on hospital construction will be saved, because, the government needs to be cautious with the funds given the obscure situations that the country is beached in.

View expressed in this article are of the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Pajhwok’s editorial policy.