Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai had once said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are twin brothers and their fate has been fixed with each other. As a landlocked country, Afghanistan cannot live alone in isolation because Pakistan is a main route to its supply chain of goods from all over the world. The Pakistani leadership is cognizance of the requirements of that country and has always shown its willingness to help the Afghan nation. It is unfortunate that Afghanistan has always acted against Pakistan on the behest of India.
Now Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has reiterated the government’s resolve to develop a strong economic partnership with Afghanistan.He says that new roads and railways network will be established with Kabul while CASA-1000 and other investment ventures will change the lot of the people in this region. Dar and his Afghan counterpart Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal held a telephone conversation and exchanged views to enhance Pak-Afghan economic cooperation. In his phone call to Dar, Zakhilwal acknowledgedthe efforts of Pakistan to enhance economic cooperation with Afghanistan, particularly in the light of the Afghan president’s visit to Pakistan. Undoubtedly,Pakistan wants peace,stability and economic development in Afghanistan and is willing to launch various economic projects in that country. The Pakistani government has already ordered the senior officials to ensure implementation of the decisions taken during the Afghan president’s visit to Islamabad. Zakhilwal also acknowledged considerable progress in this direction. The finance minister told his Afghan counterpart that funds have already been released for Torkham-Jalalabad Highway and Rehman Baba School boys’ hostel would be completed in May this year.
Dar said thathe is awaiting the Afghan government’s response on trilateral agreement on transit trade between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The core issue between Pakistan is security as terrorists have taken refuge in several safe havens in Afghanistan which they use as bases to attack Pakistani civilians and military. Afghanistan should launch hot pursuit against those who attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar and religious places elsewhere in the country. Another pressing issue is of the Afghan Transit Trade. This facility is abused at wholesalescale by unscrupulous elements within the Afghan business community. The country is deprived of millions of rupees customs duty when goods are imported in the garb of Afghan transit trade, but are supplied to bara markets in the country.
