Informations on Gardez

About Gardez

Gard?z is the capital of the Paktia province of Afghanistan. It is in the southeast of the country. The population of the city was put at ca. 10,000 in the 1979 census. They were largely Pashto-speaking Pashtuns. The current population is 111,747. The Encyclopaedia Iranica describes Gard?z as a city "belonging to a network of old isolated Tajik settlements in southern Afghanistan that are remnants of a time when Pashto had not yet reached the area."

Location and infrastructure

Gard?z is located at 2,300m above sea-level and is not far from the Tora Bora region of caves and tunnels. The city is watered by the upper course of the Rud-e Gard?z (Gard?z-River), which ends in the ?b-e Istada lake. Gard?z is located at a junction between two important roads, one linking Pakistan with Ghazni, the other connecting Kabul and Khost. The city is west of Khost and 60 miles south of Kabul.

The "old town", located at the foot of the Bala Hesar fortress, is divided into four disctricts:

... with Nawabad extending into the new residential quarters, new bazar, and administrative center.

History

Gard?z is an ancient settlement, located between the South Asia and the Iranian plateau. Unfortunately, its history is only very poorly documented.

Archaeological discoveries, including Indo-Greek, Sassanid, Hephthalite, and Turki-Shahi coins, as well as several Hindu statues from the 7th century give a small insight into the rich history of Gard?z.

According to the medieval Tarikh-e Sistan, the city was founded by the Kharijite warlord Hamza bin Abdullah Shari, although scholars agree that this is probably only a reference to the Islamic conquest of the city. In any case, Gard?z became a center of Kharijite belief for more than a century under the local dynasty of the Aflahids in the distant eastern parts of the Abbasid caliphate.. In 870, the city was conquered by the Saffarid ruler Yaqub bin Layt. In 975, the Ghaznavids took over the city, while the converted Aflahids entered the Ghaznavid nobility. In 1162, the city fell to the Sultans of Ghor.

Renowned for its multi-storied houses - as mentioned by the Central Asian conqueror Babur - the city was part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. However, nothing is known of the town during the subsequent centuries and no building remains.

During the Anglo-Afghan wars, Gard?z was handed over to the newly created country Afghanistan and was part of the "buffer-state" between British India and Tsarist Russia.

Today, Gard?z is the administrative center of a district of the Paktia province, which covers 650 km² and had a total population of 44,000 inhabitants in 1979, but was almost totally depopulated during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

In 1960 the German government had their biggest rural development project with a budget of 2.5 million Deutsch Marks for the development of Paktia ("Paktia Development Authority", see above). The project was unsuccessful as the communist regime came to power in the 1979. The commuists lost control of most of Paktia during the 80s as the country plunged in to war with only Gard?z remaining in government control.

Today Paktia remains one of the most stable provinces in the southeast compared to Khost and Paktika.

Economy and administration

The city of Gard?z is also a major fuel wood market for Kabul. Many of its natural forests are being cut down to provide fuel wood especially during winter. Gard?z is also the regional center for the southeastern Afghanistan that includes Paktika, Khost and Ghazni provinces.

During the 1970s, Gard?z experienced an economic boom as a result of the German-funded "Paktia Development Authority", established in 1965, and of the asphalting of the road to Kabul. Social services included three schools for boys, one school for girls, a hospital, one teacher training institute, the Madrasaye Roshani, two hotels, forty mosques and two Hindu temples. Most of these buildings were destroyed during the civil war in the 1980s.

After the fall of the Taliban, the first PRT (provincial reconstruction team) in Afghanistan was established in Paktia near Gard?z in early March of 2003, headed by the US Army along with a US Agency for International Development (USAID) representative. The PRT's now number over 30 in Afghanistan. The continuing challenge to bring electricity, medical clincs, schools and water to the more remote villages in Paktia are a result of ongoing security issues.