Yesterday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with the leadership of Afghanistan’s interim government, after which he announced in-kind assistance of Rs 5 billion (€24.5 mln) besides announcing multiple measures to ease border movement and trade.
The foreign minister, in his first visit to Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, met with interim Prime Minister Mulla Hassan Akhund, Deputy PM Abdullah Hanafi and other cabinet members to discuss the issues relating to trade, visa, flights and people’s movement.
Qureshi said that during the meeting, bilateral issues were discussed to facilitate the Afghan people and trade to avert any humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country. He said following the Afghan side’s objection, the condition of gate passes had been withdrawn, visas on arrival, introduced for medical and emergency cases, the requirement for COVID PCR test waived and NADRA’s service charges of $8.18 will also be suspended till December 31 this year.
The foreign minister told the Afghan leadership that Pakistan had decided to allow duty-free import of Afghanistan’s fresh fruit and vegetables to support the economy and farmers. Experts from both sides would also mull over how to define the zero-rated duty items as well as others for tariff reduction.
Similarly, the Afghan side expressed willingness to consider the reduction of duty for Pakistani exports.
