ISLAMABAD: The Taliban administration in Kabul on Tuesday urged Islamabad to find ways for tens of thousands of Afghan citizens being expelled from Pakistan to take cash and other assets back to their homeland and called for the release of thousands of containers of imports it said were stuck at the Karachi port.
The demands came during a meeting between Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and Afghan commerce minister Hajji Nooruddin Azizi who is leading a delegation to Islamabad for a tripartite meeting co-chaired by the commerce ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan.
Pakistan has imposed a transnational cargo clampdown in recent weeks, saying it has lost millions of dollars in taxes because goods are being sent duty-free from its ports to land-locked Afghanistan, and then being smuggled back across the border.
Afghan authorities say Pakistan has stopped more than 3,000 Afghanistan-bound containers at the Karachi port while demanding more tax and duty payments, causing millions of dollars in losses to traders.
“During the meeting, challenges of transit between the two countries, the halt of more than 3,000 containers of Afghan traders' assets at the Karachi port, the imposed restrictions on Afghan transit goods from Pakistan, and related matters were discussed in detail,” the Afghan embassy in Islamabad said in a statement to Arab News.
Azizi also spoke to Jilani about challenges for Afghan citizens Pakistan is expelling.
Pakistan had set a Nov 1. deadline for all illegal immigrants, including some 1.73 million undocumented Afghans, to leave the country or face forcible expulsion. Since the passing of the deadline, tens of thousands of Afghans have left the country, which has hosted over 4 million Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.
About 600,000 Afghans have also crossed over into Pakistan since the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021 after the hasty pullout of US and its NATO allies that ended America’s longest war.
Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said there are restrictions on the transfer of cash and property to Afghanistan from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades. Others including those who used to work for the US and NATO allies and fled Afghanistan fearing retribution at the hands of the new government, as well as former translators, journalists, women activists and other professionals, fear for their lives in Afghanistan.
“Bilateral trade, especially the stranded goods of (Afghan) traders in Karachi port, smooth transfer of (Afghan) refugees’ properties to (Afghanistan) and related issues were discussed,” Afghanistan’s embassy said in a separate statement, after Azizi’s meeting with Jilani.
Pakistan’s foreign office said Jilani conveyed the message that “full potential for regional trade and connectivity can be harnessed with collective action against terrorism.”
