After Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani alleged that Pakistan’s Wagah port has been closed for Afghan traders, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria in a statement said that it has not stopped them from moving their products to India through the border.
“Pakistan is fulfilling its commitment to the Afghan people by providing them with a trade transit facility,” he told BBC Urdu. He clarified that under Islamabad’s bilateral agreement with Kabul, only Indian goods could not be imported into Afghanistan through Pakistan.
Zakaria’s remarks came in response to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s threat of blocking Pakistan’s land access to Central Asia if it did not allow Afghan traders to take their goods to India via Wagah.
“If Pakistan does not allow Afghan traders to use the Wagah border for imports and exports of their goods, Afghanistan will also not allow Pakistan to use Afghan transit routes to reach Central Asia and other countries for exports,” he said in a meeting with the UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Owen Jenkins, in Kabul on Friday.
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s trade ministry also denied this charge while talking to BBC Urdu. “Under the Pak-Afghan transit trade agreement, Afghan products go to India through Wagah. There has been no change in this policy in Pakistan,” Muhammad Ashraf said.
Earlier on Friday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had threatened Pakistan to block its transit trade with Central Asian countries via Afghan route, if Islamabad did not allow Kabul to trade with New Delhi via Wagah border.
The remarks surfaced during Ghani’s meeting with UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Owen Jenkins in Kabul.
He said Afghanistan was not a landlocked country anymore and that Kabul could look for alternatives after Islamabad did not give consent.
During his 2015 India visit as well, Ashraf Ghani had come up with a similar threatening statement for Pakistan.
He said the Pakistan-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement was based on equality, further adding that Kabul would take some counter measures if Indian trade trucks were not allowed to reach Afghanistan through Wagah border.