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New Delhi: Facing the accusation that it became a ‘doll’ of Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime had raised the price of coal. This happened a few hours after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to approve the ‘Critical Quality’ coal import from Afghanistan, in Rupee, to save foreign currency and wean dependence on South African coal.
While this is Sharif’s effort to bring electricity to Pakistans as cheap as possible in the midst of a challenging domestic financial crisis and global market, the Taliban increases the tariff from $ 90 per ton to $ 200 per ton, and set special tasks at 30 percent, according to data News Aggregator South Asia Index.
“The Prime Minister was told that coal imports from Afghanistan, initially only needed for Sahiwal and Hub power plants, will save more than $ 2.2 billion per year in the import bill,” said Express Tribune on Monday.
The battle for coal
Development is an extension of the increase in Taliban coal exports to Pakistan which was reported at the end of May. Since taking over Afghanistan last year and the next economic crisis, the Taliban government has tried to rely on natural resources for income in response to the country’s economic crisis.
But now, regime members are trying to change the image of the Taliban relations with the Pakistani government. On Wednesday, the Afghan Oil and Mineral Ministry spokesman, Mufti Ismatullah Burhan, told Independent Urdu that there was no coal trade agreement between the two countries, and that the Taliban would use coal as a “pressure point” for Pakistan.
“We sell coal to the same local industrialist and coal are exported to Pakistan by local industrialists … The need for their Pakistan and coal is not important to us but our local traders are important to us and we provide assistance to them. Local traders can send coal to any country they want, but we have implemented the task of exporting coal abroad, “said Burhan, insisting that the Pakistani economy is in a terrible state so that coal from Afghanistan will not improve it.
The Afghan Hast E Shubh Daily newspaper also quoted a warning from expert Mirahmad Shakib that the real damage to every accelerated coal import would not be any country’s economy but for the environment in Afghanistan. “Pakistan is looting Afghan resources without a responsible national government,” said Shakib.
Weakening ties
Burhan’s statement and instant price increase also asked questions about the current state of relations between the Taliban regime and the Pakistani government under PM Sharif, especially now India has been reported as a player who is more involved in Afghanistan.
As previously reported by The Print on June 23, India reopened the Kabul Embassy and sent a “technical team” to “monitor and coordinate” humanitarian assistance work.
Correspondents based in Lahore for diplomats, Umair Jamal further reported how fractures had developed between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the Taliban “openly” trying to block the Pakistani border -border plan and offer Sanctuar to increase instability in the Pakistan tribe.
As a result, Islamabad was accused of “requested a mission in Afghanistan to highlight the ideological and political contradictions between India and the Taliban,” Jamal said.
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