Asia Times: Pakistan benefits from Afghan rugs


	August 4, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Pakistan benefits from Afghan rugs
By Nadeem Yaqub

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The carpet-weaving industry is flourishing in Pakistan due to the skills of thousands of Afghan refugees, allowing some benefit to the country that hosts them.

Trade has become so robust that although the Pakistan government is actively seeking the repatriation of Afghan refugees, it has decided to exempt Afghans artisans from deportation, and issue special permits so that they are not harassed by the police or expelled.

In the early 1980s, when Afghan refugees started coming to Pakistan to escape the conflict in their country, there was not much of a carpet industry. Whatever industry existed produced established Persian-style carpets, from the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan.

Many refugee carpet weavers and artisans, including the Turkmen and Hazaras, settled in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Two decades later, NWFP has a well-established carpet industry and hand-knotted Afghan carpets are on top of the province's exports list. A review of the five-year performance report of the province reveals that carpet exports showed a marked increase every year.

In 1995-96, the export of carpets and rugs from NWFP was registered at US$19 million only. By 1999-2000 the province was exporting $92.38 million worth of carpets, and the figure jumped to $130 million dollars in the current fiscal year.

The Western world is taking a liking to hand-knotted Afghan carpets. Unlike Persian carpets, in which mostly machine-made wool is used, Afghan carpets are made from handspun wool. Foreign buyers ask for their own design, size and colors, said Haq Murad, an Afghan carpet dealer with Qandeel Exports,. "The latest rage is for chobi," he said. "They like it because it's hand-made and dyed in natural colors." Chobi carpets are dyed with plant and vegetable extracts and use no chemicals.

The carpets use hand-spun yarn, created using simple wooden tool in the shape of plus sign called a chilak. It takes about three days to spin a kilogram of wool, which can earns the Afghan refugees 30 rupees (a little less that half a dollar). For thousands of Afghan refugees living at the Jallozai makeshift camp southeast of the western Pakistani city of Peshawar, spinning wool is a blessing that allows them to make a living.

Refugees take raw wool from the middlemen, called tekhedars, turn it into yarn, bring back the balls of wool and collect the wages. Men and women of all ages and even children are involved in the activity.

Pakistan's carpet industry, owing to the skills of displaced Afghans, has allowed the four-year-old Qandeel Exports to flourish. It has offices in three cities and on average exports 2,000 square meters of carpet every month, mostly to the United States and Europe.

Shoba bazaar in Peshawar has 10-15 big carpet exporters, and the number of carpet and rug shops in this locality runs in the thousands. Brisk construction activity is going on six kilometers east of Peshawar, where 98 acres of agricultural land is set to become Chamkani Carpet Town, the provincial government's $30,000 scheme to consolidate the flourishing cottage industry.

The labor and industries minister of the province, Owais Ahmed Ghani, says that he wants to "consolidate the businesses by bringing them [together] in one cluster".

Set for completion in December, the township is expected to house more than 150 manufacturing areas and residential quarters. The township will house around 50,000 workers involved in weaving, cutting, dyeing and washing of carpets. There are plans to create another carpet village at Khorasan Refugee Camp, north of Peshawar.

(Inter Press Service)

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©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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