Experience showed, however, that progress in these spheres could only be partially achieved as long as internal communications remained primitive and the natural resources of the country were largely unexplored.

As a result, the major effort was diverted to the construction of roads and airports, and to the systematic investigation of sources of water supply and of mineral wealth.

In Afghanistan, as in many other underdeveloped countries, however, this rapid success led to the emergence of new problems, unforeseen in the original planning: inflation of prices, difficulties over foreign exchange, and an unhealthy reliance on large-scale external aid for the easing of current domestic shortages.

The break with the past represented by the new democratic constitution inaugurated in 1965 is further underlined by the appointment of a woman, Kubra Noorzai, to the cabinet[1] as Minister of Public Health.

Its relations with the Maiwandwal cabinet were close and cordial, and it gave full support to the government's efforts to achieve national financial stability.