Afghanistan Times
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Sometimes the feeling of having six neighbors lead us toward optimism, and cheerfully transport feelings of joys and happiness that Afghanistan would never face problem in every areas, especially in transit routes because we are rich in neighbors. At the same time when looking at the current juncture, we dishearten with the behavior of one neighbor, none other than Pakistan that has been remained in perpetual hostility with Afghanistan since longtime. Wish we could have five neighbors; at least there would be an environment of serenity. When anything awful took place in Pakistan, the military establishment of the country pressurizes Afghans living there. Also create huge obstacles ahead of business via closing transit routes. Reopening of crossing points is a very much essential as hundreds of stranded goods trucks are near to fritter away. It also sustains billion of losses to the transport and owners on the both sides. However, there is no worry; because doing commerce with Pakistan has been declined dramatically, and using only 20 percent of Pakistan soil as transit routes—a move could come to a zero point soon if such disorders persist.
The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) have recently said that trade and transit with Pakistan has been decreasing and Afghanistan is looking toward a new routes. In the past years we had $3 billion annual trade with Pakistan where now it downhill to $1.3 billion. It is projecting an imagination that there would be a time when we hold a zero-level business and trade transit with Pakistan. This slogan is very fit here, “don’t need you anymore Pakistan” and no one be held accountable for this mess-up but Pakistan itself. Pakistan has always tried to take advantage of economic relations as a political tool to pressurize Afghanistan.
Pakistan would never receive a win-win-situation all the time, and this time Afghanistan making efforts to diminish business and also trigger the country toward isolation. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is not alone in this race, as other regional countries are also willing to see Pakistan a state to be isolated and also added in the United Nation black list for his supporting and harboring terrorists. However, Afghanistan’s economy is recovering from decades of conflict, and it has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime. Moreover, there is a strong will inside the government to bring economic reforms such as improving revenue collection and fighting corruption. Though, reform will take time to implement and still Afghanistan remained dependent on international donor supports, but hope with hard working is the best remedy in way of reaching self-sufficiency in all sectors.
