Railways urged to facilitate KP exporters

PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Railways/Dry Port Standing Committee Chairman Ziaul Haq Sarhadi met Pakistan Railways Divisional Superintendent Muhammad Nasir Khalili and took up with him a number of issues faced by the exporters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Divisional Transport Officer Anwar Saddat Marwat, Assistant Transport Officer Saba Jabeen, Chief Controller Sarhad Badsha and other officials were present. Sarhadi complained to the Railways officials about the lack of facilities at the Peshawar Dry Port and non-functioning of the Dry Port at Azakhel in Pirpai (Nowshera district). He complained that the exporters were forced to transport goods to Karachi through private trucks as Pakistan Railways was not running Export Cargo Train from the Peshawar Dry Port.

Sarhadi, who is also Frontier Customs Agents Group president, reminded the Railways officials that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is blessed with natural resources and minerals. He said the KP has gems, marble, handicraft, furniture, herbs, carpets, honey and matchbox units in great number.

He added that all export cargo by these units is transported to Karachi via private trucks which are filed as Goods Declaration (GD) there and then exported. "This has rendered several exporters in Peshawar, customs clearing and forwarding agents jobless," lamented Sarhadi, who is also serving as senior vice-president of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association.

Sarhadi said similarly several trucks of imports reached the Peshawar Dry Port through bonded carriers as there is no Karachi to Peshawar cargo train service.

"It is because of the lack of actions by the Pakistan Railways that 70 per cent of the goods under the Afghan Transit Trade have been diverted to Bander Abbas and Chah Bahar seaports in Iran. This is entailing huge losses to the Pakistan Railways and hence Pakistan," he said Sarhadi who has served as senior vice-president of the Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the past.

He expressed reservations over the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement. "It has not been reviewed in the last eight years," he pointed out. Sarhadi said Pakistan Railways can earn huge money if it gave serious consideration to the Goods In Transit To Afghanistan (GITTA), imports and exports.