By the 1990s there were hundreds of Afghan carpet factories in Pakistan, all of which had moved there because of the war. Each factory employed hundreds or even thousands of workers, but most had no direct connection to overseas markets, selling through brokers in Lahore. Most of these companies are still there today. The Pacific (‘Passific’ on their sign) Carpet Company is a notable exception – it sells direct to the American market and as it was independent from the Pakistani brokers it was able to return home to Afghanistan easily.

The Pacific Carpet Company is now located on the outskirts of Kabul in Kale Fatullah. Its Manager Ghulam Nabi says that his company receives requests for designs from the USA and his designers make patterns from photographs. They have made carpets from Behzad miniature paintings, Omar Khayam pictures and photos of John F Kennedy and George Washington. When interviewed they were working on a 40-metre carpet order from Portland, Oregon. ‘Measure your room and send us the picture and we can make it’ says Nabi entrepreneurially. Pacific exported 10,500 square feet of carpet in 2002 and hopes to expand this year. But it needs to upgrade its premises and to encourage more skilled weavers to return.

Nabi was proud to mention that last year, for the first time in two decades an Afghan company, Pacific, was a recipient of ‘America’s Magnificent Carpet Awards’ (Rug News Magazine, March 2002, [email protected]).