Afghan businessmen oppose use of Pakistani rupee in bilateral trade

Afghan businessmen have rejected Pakistan's demand to conduct bilateral trade in the Pakistani rupee in the future.

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

Daily Jang, a Pakistani newspaper in a report quoted the country's Finance Minister Shawkat Tareen as saying that Afghanistan faced a 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.

After these reports, Afghans launched a social media campaign titled 'Afghani is our national identity,' Pajhwok Afghan 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".

Social media user, Abdul Kareem in a tweet said, "I will build my country myself, so I will use the currency of my own country. Every transaction in Afghanistan should be in Afghan currency."

Many pro-Taliban people too reacted against Pakistan's demand to conduct bilateral business in the Pakistani rupee.

Hammad Afghan, one of them, in a tweet said, "If you want to enlighten your future and make a rich Afghanistan, you should promote our national currency (Afghani)."

Sheikh Abdul Hamid Hammasi, also a pro-Taliban Afghan, said: "If anyone values national identity and Afghanhood, then they should use Afghan currency for transactions..."

He said that the Taliban should make it clear to all officials and businessmen that they would be punished if they used Pakistani rupees.

A number of other people held similar views and said those using foreign currencies should be punished, the report added.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are yet to react to Pakistan's proposal.