India to slam Pak for not allowing Af trucks

India is set to use the Heart of Asia meet being held in Islamabad next week to slam Pakistan for persistently denying Afghanistan “freedom of transit” to major markets in South Asia.

New Delhi will ask Islamabad to stop playing spoilsport in the endeavours for regional integration and allow trucks carrying goods from Afghanistan transit through Pakistan all the way to India and other South Asian markets.

The Heart of Asia meeting of the Istanbul Ministerial Process in Islamabad on December 8 will see foreign ministers or other ministers of 25 nations or their representatives assembling to discuss regional issues, with focus on security political, and economic cooperation with conflict-hit Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other senior ministers of his government are also likely to take part in the conclave, which is being held every year since its launch in Kabul in 2012.

New Delhi will argue that war-ravaged Afghanistan would be able to achieve its optimal economic potential only if it was allowed freedom of transit to major markets in South Asia.

Officials told Deccan Herald that New Delhi would bring to the attention of the international community how Islamabad had been persistently denying Afghanistan “freedom of transit” through Pakistan to India.

The Afghan-Pakistan Transit and Trade Agreement came into force between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan on June 12, 2011.

Islamabad, however, at present allows trucks from Afghanistan to carry goods through Pakistan only up to Wagah (a check-point on the Pakistani side of Pakistan-India border), and not up to Attari (a check-point on the Indian side of the India-Pakistan border).