Banking the Taliban

Banks have refused to open accounts for the Afghan embassy, while dollar accounts remain frozen. A brief effort by the previous govt to find a solution has not yielded results.

On the 2nd of March this year, a meeting of the high-powered Afghanistan Interministerial Coordination Committee (AICC) faced a strange item on its agenda – a large bank had frozen the accounts of the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan and was not allowing them to make cash transactions. Not only was this bank not allowing the embassy to operate their accounts, other banks were refusing to take the embassy on as a new client. 

Since then, even though the meeting of the AICC had requested an update on the issue from the foreign ministry and the central bank, the accounts remain frozen and the embassy has been operating their day-to-day expenses through an arrangement with Pakistan’s foreign ministry. 

The reason for all of this? The Taliban. Generally, all embassies maintain two kinds of bank accounts in the countries where they are based. One is a dollar account and the other is an expenses account in the local currency of the country where the mission is based. In fact, embassy bank accounts are among the properties of states most widely present in foreign states.

 

To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan

The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account.

Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.

(Already a subscriber? Click here to login)
  • Full Price Subscription Plans

    Not only will you be supporting independent journalism, 25% of the amount from your subscription will be used to subsidise those subscribers who cannot afford the full price of the subscription. Yearly full price subscription plans also include a complimentary annual subscription to The Wall Street Journal.

    +

  • Subsidised Subscription Plans

    Pay part of the full subscription price, if you cannot afford to pay all of it, and the rest will be subsidised by a full paying subscriber.

  • Free Student Subscriptions

    If you are currently a student, you can claim an already-paid-for digital subscription, courtesy

     

Ghulam Abbas
Ghulam Abbas
The writer is a member of the staff at the Islamabad Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected]

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.

Popular Posts