Khan Jan Alokozay, the head of the Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, announced that the assets of Afghan immigrants worth more than four billion dollars have been seized in Pakistan.
Alokozay told Afghanistan International that factories and cargo trucks are part of the confiscated assets.
"Four thousand containers of commercial goods remain in the Karachi port and similarly, the fate of 500 factories built by Afghans in Pakistan is not clear," he told Afghanistan International.
He added that the situation of 500 carpet weaving factories in Karachi and Quetta and about two thousand trucks of Afghan businessmen in Pakistan is still unclear.
Alokozay said that the total value of these factories and heavy vehicles reaches more than four billion dollars. He said that Afghans have a 30% share in the economic sector of Pakistan.
He asked the Taliban to start diplomatic efforts to extract the capital and return it to Afghanistan.
Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Taliban's Prime Minister, in a strong statement on Friday reacted to the confiscation of assets of Afghan immigrants and the destruction of their homes in Pakistan.
On Thursday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Taliban, referring to the confiscation of Afghans’ assets in Pakistan, said that no one has the right to seize the property and personal items of Afghans and that the country’s citizens can transfer their funds to their country according to the law.
On the other hand, Afghans who were forcibly deported from Pakistan say that in addition to their houses, livestock were left behind and the Pakistani police did not even allow them to move many of their personal belongings.
Although Pakistani officials have not said much about Afghan investment, on Thursday, the country's Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti told a Pakistani media outlet that he is working on developing a strategy to determine the investment status of Afghan immigrants in Pakistan.
Pakistan has announced that more than 1.7 million immigrants without official residence documents live in the country and should leave Pakistan.
