Afghan embassy in Pakistan demands release of 450 containers held in Karachi

The Embassy of Afghanistan in Islamabad announced on Monday that they met with Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce officials and called for the urgent release of 450 containers that have been held back in Karachi for the past few months.

The embassy said in a statement on X that the economic representative of the Islamic Emirate in Karachi and Islamabad discussed problems with Maria Kazi, Joint Secretary, Foreign Trade Wing at Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan, and Zubair Khan, the secretary of the ministry.

The embassy stated Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce officials have promised to secure the release of the containers.

This comes after Pakistan recently imposed a 10 percent tax surcharge on a number of commercial goods belonging to Afghan traders, who use Karachi port to ship imported goods into Afghanistan.

Pakistan has also asked Afghan traders to provide cash guarantees equal to the value of their goods.

Recently, Pakistan released 3,000 containers belonging to Afghan traders after they were also stranded at the Karachi port for months.

However, about 450 have been held back. Pakistan claims the contents in the containers are banned from being imported into Afghanistan through Pakistan.

Pakistan has a list of 212 commercial items it forbids traders to send via Karachi port.