ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday Afghanistan’s decision to seek new trade routes amid rising tensions with Islamabad would ultimately benefit Pakistan, reducing transit-trade complications and helping curb militant violence that Pakistan says is carried out by armed groups based in Afghanistan.
His comments came hours after Afghan deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, told traders and industrialists to end their reliance on Pakistan for imports and exports and find alternative routes within three months.
Baradar warned the Taliban administration would not take responsibility for problems arising from commerce routed through Pakistan’s southern ports.
The Afghan official’s remarks came amid a breakdown of trust between the two neighbors, whose relations have deteriorated sharply as Islamabad accuses Kabul of harboring the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which frequently claims attacks on Pakistani security forces. The border between the two countries has remained closed since last month following deadly clashes and Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
“This is their own internal matter,” Asif told Geo TV. “Wherever they find cheaper freight or transit options, they will go there. I believe this should actually bring relief for us, because most of the goods sent from Karachi Port to Afghanistan end up in the Pakistani market. Luxury items are brought in that have no real consumption there, and they end up disturbing our market, where our consumers use them instead.”
