The Taliban regime in Afghanistan sent a high-level trade delegation to Pakistan on Tuesday for trilateral talks that included Uzbekistan.
The optics of the meeting were a little awkward because Pakistan is in the process of ejecting almost two million Afghan migrants, over the strenuous objections of Taliban leaders.
According to the Afghan embassy in Pakistan, the goals of “acting” Minister of Commerce and Industry Alhaji Nuruddin Azizi and his delegation included “advancing the trans-Afg project, trilateral transit and trade, challenges to regional connectivity, and other pertinent matters.”
Azizi is described as the “acting” minister because the entire Taliban government is supposedly temporary, even though it has been in power since President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal in August 2021.
The “trans-AFG” project is the Trans-Afghan rail line, which will connect Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan when completed in 2027. Pakistan and Uzbekistan already have fairly well-developed railroad systems, while Afghanistan’s railroad needs major improvements.
Afghan refugees arrive in trucks to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham on October 27, 2023. (ABDUL MAJEED/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trans-Afghan project is supposed to reduce the cost of transporting goods between Pakistan and Uzbekistan by 40 percent or more, and will carry passengers as well. The three-country railroad is meant to link up with the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway, which runs through Chinese-occupied East Turkistan, and possibly also with Iran’s rail network, although international sanctions against Iran may reduce the appeal of that extension.
The Trans-Afghan railroad project has been delayed by several major obstacles. Uzbekistan suspended freight services to Afghanistan earlier this year because the Taliban government failed to perform necessary maintenance on its rail line.
The three nations have squabbled over who will control various segments of the rail network. The Taliban complains that planners have not taken its “interests” into account, while Pakistan and Uzbekistan seem skeptical about the Taliban’s ability to manage such a massive project. Uzbekistan’s relations with the Taliban regime have run hot and cold since the August 2021 conquest of Kabul, and Uzbek enthusiasm for the Trans-Afghan railroad correspondingly waxes and wanes.
Pakistani Minister of Commerce Gohar Ejaz was upbeat about Tuesday’s trilateral meeting, calling it a “significant step towards strengthening economic ties and regional connectivity.”
“Bright prospects for trade, investment, and connectivity lie ahead for the mutual benefit of three countries,” he said.
Afghan refugees arrive in trucks to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham on October 27, 2023. Islamabad has given Afghans it has deemed to be living illegally in Pakistan until November 1 to leave voluntarily or face deportation — an order the Taliban government says amounts to harassment. (ABDUL MAJEED/AFP via Getty Images)
Prospects were dimmer for the huge number of Afghan migrants Pakistan is ejecting. Islamabad gave all illegal migrants one month to deport themselves on October 1, and it has followed up on the November 1 deadline with grim determination.
Pakistani media reported almost 60,000 migrants were deported before the November 1 deadline arrived, and massive caravans have been flowing across the border into Afghanistan ever since.
Pakistan opened three new border crossings this week to handle roughly 15,000 travelers a day – a major step, given that the poor security environment around the two existing border crossings was one of the major reasons Pakistan issued its eviction notice.
Human rights groups say the departing migrants, some of whom lived in Pakistan long before the Taliban takeover, face harassment in Pakistan and harsh conditions on the road back into Afghanistan, where they will fall into the clutches of the brutal “Islamic Emirate” headquartered in Kabul.
“Many Afghans in Pakistan are now facing police raids and demolition of their homes without due process. Detainees have been denied the right to a lawyer and communication with family members, leaving loved ones in the dark as to their whereabouts,” Amnesty International (AI) warned on Monday.
Afghan refugees in Pakistan are facing mass detentions and deportations. Over 170,000 Afghans, many of whom have lived in Pakistan for years, have had to leave since the government gave an ultimatum for all ‘unregistered foreign nationals’ to depart Pakistan in October. pic.twitter.com/4UAczCLSkh
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) November 13, 2023
AI and other human rights activists called on Pakistan to end the deportations immediately, but there was no sign of Islamabad doing so as of Wednesday.
Tufail Ahmad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), called Pakistan’s mass deportations “a human tragedy of colossal proportions” on Tuesday.
Ahmad noted it was also a betrayal of U.S. financial assistance paid to Pakistan for the care of Afghan refugees. The U.S. has given Pakistan over $80 million so far this year for the refugees Pakistan is currently evicting from their homes with bulldozers.
Ahmad decried the “global silence” over the plight of the displaced Afghans, including from Muslim governments and religious leaders. While he noted the Pakistani military has legitimate security concerns about terrorism from Pakistan’s version of the Taliban, he suggested the deportation was part of a tantrum thrown by Pakistani officials who expected to have much more influence over Afghanistan after the U.S.-backed government was overthrown:
Pakistan is known for exporting jihad to Afghanistan and the Kashmir region of India. Now having installed the Afghan Taliban jihadi organization, the Islamic Emirate, in the seat of power in Kabul, Pakistan’s demands are necessarily strategic. It is not seeking minerals, vegetables, and grains from Afghanistan. And since it cannot extract its demands from the new Taliban rulers, who prioritize Afghanistan’s own interest over Pakistan’s demands, the Pakistani military is punishing the Afghan refugees instead.
Deutsche Welle (DW) argued on Monday that Pakistan’s deportation strategy is counterproductive because it has enraged the Taliban, which might well retaliate by supporting the very “Pakistani Taliban” extremists Islamabad is worried about.
Dr. Faizullah Jan, an analyst based in Peshawar, told DW that Afghanistan is already “going through a severe financial economic crisis with millions of people depending on humanitarian assistance or facing the specter of hunger and starvation.”
Jan warned the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Pakistan could “fan anti-Pakistan sentiment among Afghans” and “force the Afghan Taliban to take a tough line on ties with Islamabad.”
