ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: A 22-member trade delegation left on Sunday for Kabul on a 4-day visit to finalise a barter trade arrangement with Afghanistan and Dubai and to increase cooperation in banking, reconstruction and economic development.

The delegation led by Export Promotion Bureau Chairman Tariq Ikram comprised businessmen from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad and Quetta but was without any sectoral or organizational representation.

This is the first official visit of a Pakistani trade delegation to Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban administration. The delegation will deliver a letter from President Gen Pervez Musharraf to Chairman Hamid Karzai.

Tariq Ikram, who is a minister of state, told a news conference before the delegation’s departure that neither would Pakistan allow transportation of Indian goods to Kabul through Wagah border nor would it increase trade at the cost of domestic industry. The minister, however, indicated that Islamabad and Kabul would be able to find a solution on Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA), under which the list of 26 items restricted for transit to Afghanistan could be reduced.

Besides meeting Mr Karzai’s cabinet members, officials and traders, the delegation will hold discussions with international agencies, including World Bank, United Nations Development Programme and World Food Programme, about the utilization of $4 billion foreign funding commitments for Afghan reconstruction.

BUSINESS FORUM: The agreement would be signed by the EPB chief and Afghan minister for trade and commerce Mustafa Kazmi on behalf of their respective governments.