The Taliban minister raised the issue of refugee assets during a Pakistan visit. An Afghan embassy statement on Tuesday stated that the acting commerce minister of the Taliban met with Pakistan’s foreign minister this week in Islamabad.
They talked about trade and how the thousands of Afghan people that Pakistan is expelling may be able to return money and other assets to their country.
Less than a week has passed since Pakistan announced that it was expelling hundreds of thousands of illegal Afghans because the Taliban-led government was refusing to take action against terrorists who were using Afghanistan as a base of operations for strikes within Pakistan.
Taliban leaders have urged Islamabad to stop deporting Afghan nationals, claiming that militancy is a domestic concern for Pakistan.
The acting commerce minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, met with Pakistan’s acting foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani. “Bilateral trade, especially the stranded goods of (Afghan) traders in Karachi port, smooth transfer of (Afghan) refugees’ properties to (Afghanistan), and related issues were discussed,” the Afghanistan embassy in Islamabad said in a statement.
Returned Afghan individuals have reported that money and property transfers from Pakistan, where many had established houses and companies for decades, are restricted.
According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the message Jilani delivered was that “full potential for regional trade and connectivity can be harnessed with collective action against terrorism.”
Pakistan said last month that all unauthorized immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans, will be expelled starting on November 1. It dismissed requests to rethink from Western embassies, human rights organizations, and the UN, citing security concerns.
As the chilly winter season approaches, humanitarian organizations are concerned about the problematic conditions many recently returned Afghans are experiencing with limited resources. They assert that many of them are residing in crowded shelters run by NGOs and Taliban officials close to the border.
According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, on Tuesday, the acting minister of trade for the Taliban will also hold a trilateral meeting with officials from Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
Although the three nations have been working on plans for commerce, transit, and railroad linkages between South and Central Asia that would go via Afghanistan, the topic of the trilateral summit remained unclear.
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