Pakistan asked to put house in order instead of blaming Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan hit back at Pakistan for not being able to curb illegal trade being carried out under the guise of Afghan transit trade. In an interview to a select group of journalists here, Afghanistan’s Finance Minister, Omar Zakhilwal, urged Pakistan to bring its own house in order instead of blaming Kabul.

“The responsibility falls on the shoulders of Pakistan,” he commented. The minister explained that smuggling was hurting Kabul as well since it was depriving the people of Afghanistan of their wealth from legitimate natural resources.

Pakistan has blamed Afghanistan for non-cooperation with authorities over the issue of smuggling, which has been damaging the local economy.

Omar Zakhilwal said that Afghanistan was ready to share information but it could not control smuggling being carried out on Pakistani soil.

He revealed that a study to determine the exact volume of smuggling had been carried out in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its results would be known in two months.

He said that Afghanistan possessed mineral resources worth trillions of dollars and that Pakistani businessmen had been encouraged to extract them.

Reiterating his government’s demand to open the Wagah border, the minister declared, “Good neighbourly relations require free flow of goods in between the countries and through the countries.” He added that his government was ready to facilitate Pakistani trade with five landlocked Central Asian States.

The minister demanded that Afghan trucks should be allowed to go to any part of Pakistan to transport goods and that transit using mechanisms other than containers should also be permitted. “The criteria should be internationally accepted sealable measures irrespective of whether it is an open truck or a container.”

Pakistan fears that allowing the transportation of goods in open trucks would further fuel smuggling.

The visiting minister also expressed concern over the practice of controlling transit trade through the negative trade list.

The minister was in Islamabad for two days for talks over a new transit trade treaty between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The seventh round of talks on the issue ended in a deadlock as both states refused to compromise on their stated positions.

The main disagreement remained over Afghanistan’s inclination to trade with India via Pakistan - a demand that has been repeatedly rejected by Pakistani authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2010.