ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance Wednesday learnt to its utter shock that over 600 trucks were stuck up at the Pak-Iran border, causing losses of $2.2 million per day.
The panel referred the matter to Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and the federal cabinet for resolution.
The committee extended a special invitation to the Iranian Economic Counsellor Ms. Zehra who gave a presentation to the senators and argued that Iran did not slap any bank guarantees on its territory, while Iranian truck drivers were stuck up at the border, and in some instances for the last one month, but were not allowed to deliver the goods.
Following this disclosure by the Iranian side, Senator Farooq H Naek, Shibli Faraz and Faisal Vawda argued that those responsible must be held accountable.
Senator Naek said he felt ashamed to listen to all this so he would recommend to the committee chairman to refer the matter to the prime minister and the federal cabinet for resolution. The Iranian representative said if the trade was opened, it could benefit the Gwadar port. She said there were unexpected policy changes without prior notice and cited an example that new regulations like requiring certificate of origin permits for hydrocarbon imports and recent issues with iron clearance led to congestion and return of shipments to Iran.
She said there were no clear reasons why the Iranian trucks were banned from entering Pakistan; however, it was believed that the restrictions were meant to prevent goods from being swapped between Taftan and Quetta. There are limited entry lanes, as in Pakistan there are two lanes on the roads.
The Iranian representative explained that the goods that each truck carried were worth around $11,000. The delay is costing the traders about $100 per day per truck, raising the price of goods. Furthermore, the drop in the number of trucks crossing the border in the past six months has led to an estimated daily economic loss of $2.2 million.
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