After the US started an offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, he stepped in with private investments, including building both the first five-star hotel in Kabul and Roshan, the leading mobile phone company.
Roshan has 1.3 million subscribers and is adding 60,000 a month. The Afghan government gets 6 percent of its tax revenue from the company, Abdulla says. Roshan says it employs 900 people, about 180 of whom are women.
"In Afghanistan, the Aga Khan is creating an enabling environment for business," says Patel at the World Bank. "While producing results, these are early days. It's too soon to see a payoff from his investments."
That does not bother the Aga Khan. Building businesses, he says, "is part of the ethics of the faith."
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