Pakistan must allow direct trade route via Wagah, says Ghani

NEW DELHI: Days before he arrives in New Delhi for an official visit, President Ashraf Ghani on Friday warned he would close Pakistan’s transit route to Central

Published on: Sep 10, 2016, 08:14:14 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: Days before he arrives in New Delhi for an official visit, President Ashraf Ghani on Friday warned he would close Pakistan’s transit route to Central Asia if his country’s entrepreneurs were not allowed to trade with India via the Wagah border crossing.

The remarks reflected Kabul’s growing frustration with Islamabad after the virtual collapse of a Pakistan-backed process to engage with the Afghan Taliban. Ghani has been angered by Pakistan’s failure to deliver on a commitment to bring the militants to the negotiating table.

Ghani, who is scheduled to visit India on September 14, issued the warning during a meeting with Britain’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Owen Jenkins, according to a statement from the presidential palace.

The “tit-for-tat action” was prompted by Pakistan’s persistent refusal to let Afghan traders do business with India through Wagah, he said. Afghanistan is no longer a land-locked country as it has access to multiple transit trade routes, he added. The remark was an apparent reference to the recent pact between India, Pakistan and Iran to develop a transit corridor centred round Chabahar port.

Ghani complained to Owen that Pakistan usually closes transit routes during the fruit-growing season, leading to losses of millions of dollars. On the other hand, India has agreed to exempt n Afghanistan from tariffs for fruit exports and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allowed the airlifting of fruits, he added.

Besides the blocking of trade with India, Ghani raised Pakistan’s support for terror groups involved in destabilising his country. He told the UK diplomat that support for terror was a violation of good neighbourliness and global norms. “This act of the neighbour was no longer acceptable to Afghans,” he added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More