PESHAWAR, Dec 16: The Sarhad Goods Transport and Adda Owners Association on Tuesday called upon the government to shift the terminals for Nato and US forces’ supplies to Azakhel, Nowshera, otherwise they would boycott transportation of the supplies to Afghanistan.

A meeting of office-bearers of the association was held here, which expressed concern over the growing attacks on cargo terminals, killing of drivers and torching of trailers on the Ring Road during the past some weeks.

Following the meeting, association’s Peshawar chapter chairman Ashraf Khan Khalil told journalists that the Ring Road had become risky for transporters.

The terminals, he said, were located at different places away from each other, which could hardly be protected, and despite deployment of security forces, transporters were feeling insecure.

The most suitable and easily protected site for the Nato terminals, according to him, was Azakhel. He said the problem could be resolved if the government convened a meeting of transporters and contractors.

He said the Azakhel area was comparatively safe and close to the railway dry port. He said a large open space was available there and all the terminals could easily be accommodated there.

“We have so far not boycotted the supply and containers’ supply from Karachi is still continuing. If the government fails to meet our demands we will have the only option to boycott,” Mr Khalil said.

He said those who had boycotted the supplies were not representing owners of trailers. “If we boycotted, no container will be brought from Karachi,” he said.

Association’s vice-president Mohammad Arif Afridi demanded that the government should shift the vehicles’ clearance office from Torkham to Peshawar so that the possibility of attacks on Nato supplies could be minimised.

He also opposed the procedure of payment of charges to transporters, saying the carriage charges were paid through a voucher, which wasted time. He said the transporters on return from Afghanistan were forced to carry empty containers to Pakistan without payment of any charges and in case of any damages to containers the transport operatives were held responsible for it.

The transporters said most of the companies who had contracts of supplying the goods for Nato did not have a single vehicle and the usual demand of the contracts used to be up to 25 vehicles for supplying the goods.

“Some 500 to 600 trailers usually cross to Afghanistan everyday and half of them are meant for Nato forces,” they said.

They said a general body meeting of the association would be held to discus the issues and take a unanimous decision in this regard.