The business leaders of the Pak-Afghan Joint Committee on Business/Trade comprising ACCI, PAJCCI, and FPCCI senior officials, met with the Federal Minister for Commerce, Mr. Khurram Dastgir Khan, at the Pakistan Secretariat, on Tuesday 14 March, 2017.
Minister Dastgir welcomed the two delegations and said this is a very timely initiative given the context of the border closure. He expressed that brotherly relations with Afghanistan are very important to us and are also on priority of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has reiterated to me personally to be prepared to ‘give more than we receive’. We have tremendous past, commonality of religion, traditions and culture bind us together. Afghanistan’s peace and prosperity is important to us, as it is linked with Pakistan’s peace.
He said referring to the border closure, we will extend invitation to our Afghan counterparts again to sit together, discuss and resolve these issues. He added: “A unilateral opening of the border without reciprocity by our Afghan friends is unlikely. Some sense of understanding on border management has to be realized. We are ready to facilitate as much as we can but please allow us to regulate the border. We know the closure alone is not the answer to terrorism but we expect reciprocity and respect for our concerns that we have continuously conveyed to the Kabul government”. We urge Afghans to become our advocates.
Mr. Zubair Motiwala, President PAJJCI (Pakistan) and Mr. Ahmed Shah Yarzada, Director PAJCCI (Afghanistan) told the Minister that they have been conveying a consistent message in all the meetings – Please segregate business form politics, do not let business become the victim of politics – reiterating again that businessmen and traders are suffering millions of dollars loses on a daily basis and that a large numbers of containers with perishable items such as poultry, eggs, vegetables and fruits are stuck since 17 February and today is the 25th day, both the governments need to come to resolution on stringent security measures, but the borders should be opened immediately, at least for the passage of these held up containers. They both provided Minister Dastgir with figures and facts of the real loses so far.
The Minister said that he will convey the “real loses” to all those who matter. He said that saying to the authorities that stringent security measures at borders including scanning is ok but closure is not. The Afghan government and security agencies must answer our concerns on security: “our security agencies are awaiting reciprocity from Afghan agencies, please as business leaders approach your government and tell them to show some willingness to discuss this issue of opening of border, as it is unlikely to happen unilaterally”.
Dastgir explained that, while all Pakistanis feel the pain from violence in Afghanistan, it is not life as usual any more. We will have to move away from historical notions on border in favor of a pragmatic approach as much as elsewhere. That is why Pakistan continues to beef up major crossing points on the 2560 km long border regardless whether Afghanistan engages in the dialogue or not.
He told the visiting Afghan delegation to please stop looking at Pakistan through the Indian or US prism. Unless we conduct the relationship bilaterally, and until Kabul stops advocating for India, it will be hard to move out of the current stand-off. Diplomacy rests on rational and needs and not emotions or historical notions, he further added. A rational discourse, he said, will certainly help suffering Afghan and Pakistani people and traders at large.
Pakistan remains committed to bilateral dialogue on security and economics. And we are still waiting for the Kabul call on many meetings on issues such as the revised draft on Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement or Joint Economic Commission. The ball is in Kabul’s court, Minister Dastgir said.
Mr. Zubair Motiwala, head of the delegation and President PAJCCI presented the Minister with the “Joint Declaration” of the Pak-Afghan Joint Committee on business/Trade.