FM links Afghan trade to anti-TTP steps

Kabul wants its 3,000 containers stuck at Karachi port released

ISLAMABAD:

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Tuesday told a visiting Afghan cabinet member that the full potential of regional trade and connectivity could be harnessed with “collective action against terrorism”.

Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Afghan commerce minister, was in Islamabad to attend a tripartite huddle of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan.

On the sidelines of the meeting, he met the interim foreign minister and discussed bilateral issues including the current move by Pakistan to deport Afghans illegally living in the country.

A Foreign Office statement read that the Jilani received the acting Afghan minister and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to have mutually beneficial ties with the neighbouring country.

“The foreign minister said [the] full potential for regional trade and connectivity [could] be harnessed with collective action against terrorism,” it added.

His statement suggests that Islamabad has linked any progress towards trade and regional connectivity with Kabul to the Afghan Taliban regime taking concrete steps against the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The issue has emerged as a major stumbling block as despite repeated demands by Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban government is reluctant to take action against the TTP.

Tensions have deepened in recent weeks between the two countries after Pakistan decided to deport all Afghans illegally residing in the country.

A statement issued by the Embassy of Afghanistan read that Azizi discussed bilateral trade with the interim Pakistani minister, especially the stranded goods of Afghan traders at Karachi port.

Pakistan authorities say they have lost millions of dollars in taxes because goods are being sent duty-free from its ports to land-locked Afghanistan, and then smuggled back across the border.

Afghan authorities say Pakistan has stopped more than 3,000 Afghanistan-bound containers at Karachi Port while demanding more tax and duty payments, causing millions of dollars in losses to its traders.

The goods include high-end electronics, machine parts, chemicals and textiles -- all of which attract huge tariffs if imported to Pakistan.

The quantities of these goods destined for Afghanistan have soared in the past two years and are unrealistic given the size of the market there, Pakistan officials say.

Azizi also took up the issue of the smooth transfer of refugees' assets to Afghanistan as well as other related matters.

The visit of the Afghan commerce minister came at a time when Islamabad and Kabul are at odds with each other over the deportation of undocumented citizens of the neighbouring country living in Pakistan.

However, the root cause of their simmering tensions is the issue of cross-border terrorist attacks by the TTP.

Pakistan is upset that the Afghan Taliban are not taking action against the terrorist outfit.

At a recent news conference, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said there was a 60% surge in terrorist attacks in Pakistan since the return of Afghan Taliban to power in August 2021.

He continued that the number of suicide attacks went up by a staggering 500%.

 Ambassador Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special envoy on Afghanistan, alleged that the Afghan Taliban were controlling the TTP and warned that their relationship was hurting the bilateral ties between the two countries.

In a recent interview, the special envoy said Pakistan could not fathom the fact that the TTP was under the Afghan Taliban’s control and they were allowed to cross the border to carry out attacks in the country.

He cautioned that the future of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship was dependent on the Afghan Taliban’s practical measures against the TTP.