THE Afghan government has requested Islamabad to allow the private sector to lift transit cargo from Karachi ports due to increasing trade volume and heavy workload. Currently, Pakistan Railways is transporting Afghan transit cargo from the ports of Karachi to Peshawar and Chaman. Kabul has requested the arrangements to be made for clearance of Afghan transit goods at Karachi ports 24 hours and seven days a week.

The Afghans want that warehouses should be constructed at Port Qasim for perishable goods. A lot of commercial and non-commercial cargo comprising food, medicines, chemicals and other perishable items are off-loaded at Port Qasim, which lack the proper storage facilities for such goods.

The other facilities, Kabul sought under the ATT agreement, included: * The customs stations at Torkham and Spin Boldak should be electronically linked with the central computers at Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta for retrieving transit * The Afghan cargo be exempted from customs examinations at Peshawar dry port and at Quetta/ Chaman * Suitable amendment be made in the ATT Agreement for abolishing Afghan Transit Trade Invoice (ATTI); * The Afghan trucks should be allowed on reciprocal basis to freely pass through the Pakistan territory as is the case of Pakistani trucks, movement within Afghanistan. * Afghan trucks may be allowed to load the transit cargo from Pakistani ports for transportation to Afghanistan.

The Afghan demand may, perhaps, may not be so difficult to be met when the under-construction Gwadar port complex in Balochistan with the proposed arrangements for clearance of transit goods, warehouses and proper storage facilities, is completed. The port may also attract transit cargo to and from land-locked countries of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The pros and cons of the fresh demands or requests made by Kabul in regard to more facilities under the ATT needs to be reviewed. A possible snag extension Of the requested facility is the misuse of transit agreement for unloading in Pakistani market.

Under the umbrella of ATT, massive smuggling of goods like tyres, electronic goods, black tea and home appliances was carried out by the unscrupulous elements. Imported products booked for Afghanistan never reached their destination. This undermined the local industry and also the legal imports from Pakistan.

Ultimately, this forced Islamabad to put 17 items on the negative list of the ATT in 1996. Prior to 1996, the value of these 17 items made up 43 per cent of the total transit goods. In 2001, seven more items were added to the prohibitive list. Presently, the prohibitive list contains 24 items. Black tea, tyre, television set, air conditioner, VCR, refrigerator etc, were included in the list.

With the issuance of the negative list in 1996, the production of television sets in the country increased from 72,000 in 1996-97 to around 288,000 in 1999-2000. Kabul had requested Pakistan to remove the 24 items from the negative list.

It is hoped that with the reconstruction of Afghanistan underway, the demand for goods and service there would pick up further and the Afghan money currently tied to the transit trade, may find avenues for investment in the domestic market, more so, because of gradual reduction in tariffs and liberalization of foreign trade by Pakistan, which would make smuggling a far less attractive position.