Pakistan says Wagah border open for Afghan traders

Pakistan has said it has not stopped Afghan traders to move their goods to India through Wagah border crossing, days after Afghanistan President warned to stop transit facility to Central Asia for Pakistani traders.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had reportedly threatened to stop transit facility for Pakistan if Afghan businessmen were not allowed to trade with India through Wagah. Reacting to his statement, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria told media that under an agreement with Afghanistan, India cannot send its goods to Afghanistan through Pakistan but Afghanistan can sell goods to India via Pakistan. 

“Pakistan is fulfilling its commitment to the Afghan people by providing them a trade transit facility,” he told BBC Urdu on Saturday. Ghani reportedly told UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Owen Jenkins, in Kabul on Friday that if Pakistan did not allow Afghan traders to sell goods in India through Wagah, then his country would not allow Pakistanis to use transit facility for Central Asia. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been volatile due to allegations by both sides of cross border militancy.