In a step forward, Pakistan has finally opened all its borders with Afghanistan for bilateral trade and people movement from both sides, after almost three months of suspension.
In a step forward, Pakistan has finally opened all its borders with Afghanistan for bilateral trade and people movement from both sides, after almost three months of suspension.
The aim of the decision is to further boost bilateral trade as well as improve brotherly ties between the two neighbouring countries and to facilitate movement from both sides of the historic borders. However, traders and transporters are still facing some difficulties in getting clearance for their loaded vehicles by the local agencies serving at the borders. Due to these difficulties and issues, there is still no significant sign of increase in the quantum of Kabul-Islamabad trade, which was $1.2 billion per annum before the coronavirus outbreak and dropped to an estimated $1 billion after border closure.
The traders and transporters are still registering complaints for delays in getting clearance for their containers.
Although Pakistani government and concerned authorities are trying to remove these hurdles and expedite movement, it will take some time. It should be noted that the whole system has been changed in these ex-federally administered tribal areas. Now there are multiple authorities and agencies serving at these borders, where every agency and authority has its own rules and regulations. This has been creating issues for the traders and transporters and causing delay in the clearance of vehicles.
Pakistani-Afghan border was sealed in mid-March as part of containment measures against COVID-19; however, in the first move, three borders - Chaman in Balochistan, and Torkham and Ghulam Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were opened in June this year.
Later, special envoy to the prime minister for Afghanistan, and ex-senior diplomat Muhamamd Sadiq Khan further announced in a twitter message, that Pakistan would also open the other two remaining borders, Angoor Adda and Kharlachi in Kurram, with Afghanistan from July 12. Following close coordination and teamwork, Pakistan was able to re-open those borders two days earlier than the said date. In his twitter message, Sadiq Khan was optimistic that the Pakistani government’s decision to reopen all main borders with Afghanistan would help increase business and reduce trust deficit between the two brotherly Islamic countries.
Opening of border with Afghanistan is a very positive sign for bolstering bilateral trade and ties between the two countries, but the appointment of more than a dozen agencies on the Pakistani side, especially at Torkham, is delaying clearance of containers apart from other issues.
These issues were also raised in a recent meeting of Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Taj Mohammad Afridi.
In its meeting, the committee took serious notice of establishing illegal transport terminals in tribal district Khyber and ordered registering an FIR against the establishment of illegal terminals/parking area and extortion from transporters. The general manager of NLC informed the meeting that Torkham border was facing various issues on the border which has created the current situation. At the meeting, the chairman of the committee asked the GM why the NLC had given any role to other agencies at the border.
All the members of the committee were of the unanimous view that the role of all agencies on the Torkham border should be taken over by NLC, which was the real problem for transporters and trader.
The committee and the representative of the KP government was of the view that lead role at Torkham in terms of trade should be given to customs authorities.
Afridi said that before the appointment of NLC and other agencies at Torkham border, the volume of exports on the border was quite high as compared to what it was today. Many countries have benefited from the coronavirus pandemic, and increased their exports, but unfortunately, the situation was different here, he pointed out.
Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, former senior vice president of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), and president of frontier customs clearing agents association, said that during the past four month, Pak-Afghan trade reduced from $1.2 billion per annum to $1 billion.
“The opening of all borders with Afghanistan was remarkable, but still there are other issues on the borders which need to be addressed, especially the issues of delays in clearance of transport vehicles which is causing huge loss to the traders and transporters,” he added. Sarhadi further said that before the merger of ex-FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there were only two departments, political administration and customs authorities, which dealt with the Afghan trade, and everything went on smoothly.
In view of the raised concerns, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment, Mohammad Shehzad Arbab visited Torkham border to resolve the issue of stuck up containers at Peshawar and Torkham. During the visit, he was accompanied by PM's Special Representative for Afghanistan Affairs, Muhammad Sadiq and senior officers of Ministries of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Interior, FBR, IG FC and DG NLC.
Arbab was briefed on the issue of stuck up containers in detail and the arrangements at the border for the people to people contact and the ease of mutual trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was informed that presently, around 3,000 export and transit containers were stuck up in Peshawar, and clearance of those on priority basis was necessary to improve the bilateral trade relations.
Arbab said that improving bilateral trade relations and people to people contact with brotherly Islamic country Afghanistan was part of government’s vision. Therefore, the government should take all necessary measures to remove the hurdles in the smooth operations of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
After detailed discussion, it was also decided in the meeting to increase the number of containers up to 800/day to be cleared in order to decrease the backlog. Further, all stakeholders also agreed upon increasing the export volume to Afghanistan and to streamline the trade procedures.
However, in the light of complaints registered by the traders and transporters, while taking serious action, Pakistan Customs declared all terminals and parking areas set up for Pak-Afghan commercial vehicles in the tribal district Khyber as illegal and abolished them.
The customs authorities also cancelled the NOCs issued by the administration of tribal district Khyber and warned the transporters if any vehicle was found parked in these illegal terminals, strict action would be taken against them. Now, who was going to implement these orders and how much it would help to increase trade between the two countries is left to be seen.
