Pakistan has issued a strong rebuttal to recent instructions from the Taliban authorities, who urged Afghan traders to seek markets beyond Pakistan and cautioned that Kabul would not accept any responsibility if commercial ties with Islamabad persisted. The Foreign Office said these comments demanded a clear response.
Speaking at his weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi underlined that while Pakistan supports regional trade and connectivity, such initiatives cannot flourish amid ongoing cross-border militancy. He noted that Pakistan had taken several steps to facilitate Afghan commerce, but these gestures had not been matched by action from the Taliban administration.
Andrabi stressed that safeguarding Pakistani citizens is more important than any economic advantages. He said trade flows and transit arrangements with Afghanistan would only be feasible if Kabul demonstrated firm and visible measures against anti-Pakistan groups operating from its territory. Recent attacks in Islamabad and Wana, he added, had once again exposed the scale of the threat originating from Afghan soil.
Commenting on the two incidents, the spokesperson said both carried unmistakable links to Afghanistan, pointing out that the Islamabad suicide bomber was an Afghan national. He warned that Pakistan would take whatever actions were necessary to ensure the safety of its people and insisted that Afghanistan would continue to be held answerable for armed groups using its territory to target Pakistan.
On diplomatic engagement, Andrabi said Pakistan remained committed to peaceful dialogue with the Taliban regime but emphasized that talks could not progress without concrete moves against the TTP and the faction known as Fitnah-Al-Khawaraj. He rejected the Taliban’s claims of being unable to control the TTP, arguing that such excuses contradict their own assertions of comprehensive territorial authority.
The spokesperson also spoke about Pakistan’s broader foreign relations, noting ongoing cooperation with the United States across defence, economic, and social sectors. Addressing the Indus Waters Treaty dispute, he said India’s refusal to participate in the Neutral Expert process was unlawful and would not impede arbitration. Andrabi further criticized India’s response to the Red Fort blast, calling the crackdown on Kashmiri Muslims a politically driven attempt to deflect attention from domestic issues.
