KABL (Pajhwok): Afghan ambassador in Islamabad Hazrat Umar Zakhelwal on Saturday asked government in Kabul through aircraft back to the country as there was no hope for the speedy reopening of crossing points.
The Afghan envoy lamented the crossing points could not be reopened despite his demand during multinational regional conference from Pakistan Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.
Zakhelwal said he met foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz over the issue and asked him to at least reopen the crossing points for people who have remained stranded.
He said he met Aziz today and demanded the reopening of the gate, adding the Pakistani official claimed the crossing points were open for people who want go from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The Afghan envoy said he met multiple Pakistani leaders and discussed the issue with them.
Pakistan closed the crossing points with Afghanistan on Durand line after terrorist attacks in the country last month. The deadliest of these attacks were the one that target sufi Shrine in Sindh where around 100 people were killed and scores wounded.
Continuous unreasonable closure of legal Pak/Afghan trade and transit routes cannot have any other explanation except to be aimed at hurting the common Afghan people, he said.
However, what actually gets hurt more is bilateral trade, with Pakistan losing more – Peshawar & Quetta in particular as Pakistan’s declining export share in Afghanistan is indicative of that, the envoy added.
Zakhelwal said, the continuous closure of trade routes also went in direct contradiction to the theme, objectives and messages of the recently held ECO summit that Pakistan hosted and led.
“Since their closure, as I have raised this issue with the relevant Pak military and civilian leadership, I have not been provided with a convincing justification. Argument that the closure of these crossing points was needed to stop terrorists’ crossing cannot carry any weigh as these points such as Torkham and Spin Boldak have been manned by hundreds of military and other security personal and have all the checking infrastructure and equipments in place.”
“I have also raised with Pak leaders the plight of about 25000 Afghan visitors, mostly poor people, who have traveled to this country on Pak visas for medical treatment or visits and are now stuck on this side for more than two weeks. Over the past week repeated assurances are given to me that the crossing points will open at least partially to allow these stranded visitors to return to their country but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Today in my conversation with Mr Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, I conveyed to him that if in the next couple of days an opening was not allowed for the return of the stranded visitors I would ask my government to provide chartered flights to lift them. This, however, would reflect a very poor picture,” he said.
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