PESHAWAR: Measures to regularise cross-border movement
By Zulfiqar Ali
PESHAWAR, July 30: Authorities are building gates at four points along the border with Afghanistan in Kurram Agency to regularise cross-border movement and trade, officials said.
The construction of these gates is also expected to help check flow of narcotics from Paktia and Khost provinces to Pakistan.
An official in the works and services department said the Narcotics Affairs Section of the US government was providing funds to build modern entry and exit points along the porous border.
He said accommodation would be provided to personnel of law-enforcement agencies and customs at these points.
The gates are being erected at the Kharlachi, Gavi, Sherko and Shahedan Dand points.
Initially, the Afghan government had refused to allow construction of these gates. In April, border security forces of the two countries exchanged fire at Gavi in which four Afghan guards were injured.
“US military officials intervened and it was only after an exchange of maps that Pakistani contractors were allowed to carry on the construction work,” said an official at the Kharlachi border crossing point.
Bilateral trade, legal and illegal, and cross-border movement are increasing at these points.
Despite deployment of personnel of the Levies and Frontier Corps, illegal trade and movement of people are going on unabated on both sides of the border. People from border areas of Afghanistan frequently visit Parachinar and other towns for routine activities.
The federal government had earlier planned to construct a customs complex at Kharlachi, some 20km southwest of Parachinar, to boost trade activities in the area. But the plan has been shelved, said an official.
An Afghan border security official told this correspondent that they had been allowing people to cross over on the basis of mutual trust.
Sources said the government had yet to install the Personal Identification Security Comparison and Evaluation System at major border crossing points to record particulars of people entering or going out of the country. The system put in place at the Torkham checkpost in Khyber Agency is lying out of order since installation.
