Pakistani Rupee to be the de facto currency for local trade in Afghanistan

Kabul: Even though Afghans are stressing that no one should use Pakistani currency and those using it should be punished, for now the Pakistani Rupee seems to be the de facto currency for Pakistan-Afghanistan trade and business.

According to media reports, a number of people have reacted to reports in a Pakistani newspaper that said business deals in Afghanistan should be based on Pakistani rupees, Pajhwok News reported.

Daily Jang, a Pakistani newspaper in a report quoted the country’s Finance Minister, Shawkat Tareen as saying that Afghanistan faced shortage of dollar reserves and that would be the reason Afghanistan would make transactions in Pakistani rupees.

The report said that Tareen made the statements after International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank suspended payments to Afghanistan.

Raha Press reported Pakistan’s most “shocking” economy minister has told the Senate Economic Committee that since Afghanistan is running out of dollar liquidity these days, trade with Afghanistan may be in rupees (Pakistani rupees).

It should be noted that in the past, in many cities of the country that border Pakistan, the main trade exchanges were based on the Pakistani rupee, which was met with many reactions, the report said.

Shaukat said the situation in Afghanistan was being closely monitored and Pakistan would send a team to help revive the Afghan economy.

After these reports, Afghans launched a social media campaign titled ‘Afghani is our national identity’, Pajhwok News said.

Most of the social media activists shared slogans, such as: “We are residents of Afghanistan, Afghani is our national identity and using Afghan currency is our national responsibility”.

Afghani businessmen do not want to use the Pakistani currency, but do not have a choice as Pakistani traders are not ready to take Afghan money or “Afghani” and currency, fearing that it could be devalued internationally at the blink of an eyelid.