PESHAWAR, Jan 16: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that transport companies doing business with Afghanistan are suffering financial losses owing to stoppage of hundreds of trucks at Torkham, PakistanAfghanistan border.

'The truckers are suffering financial losses ofhundreds ofthousands ofrupees daily because Frontier Corps has stopped their trucks loaded with commercialgoods and items in transit to Afghanistan at Torkham border and Takhta Beg checkpost,' SCCI vice-president Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said on Monday.

In a joint press release issued by Mr Sarhadi and SCCI president Afan Aziz, they demanded of the government to ensure speedy checking of consignments on route to Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade.

'We are not against the government's decision of stopping Nato supplies, but it should take appropriate measures to en-sure thatgoodsin transit and underregular trade to Afghanistan are not affected,' they said.

They said that the delay in clearing goods by FC had affected trade with Afghanistan. They said that FC had stopped consignments comprising cooking oil, brake oil, mobile oil, motor oil and grease, whereas, from among the local items the security personnel had stopped trucks loaded with chemicals for washing carpets.

As a result, each truck was losingRs3000 daily, they said, adding that the shipping companies were also suffering $15 to $30 daily losses per truck. They said the border security forces and customs authorities needed to improve their liaison, speeding up the clearance of trucks on way to Afghanistan.

'We recognise that strict checking is meant to ensure that Nato goods are not transported to Afghanistan, but the authorities should also recognise that they have not recovered a single item meant for Nato from the trucks transportingcommercial items,' they said.

They said that members of the business community held meetings with the FC and Customs authorities explaining to them the SCCPs concerns, but the meetings remained without positive result for the affected businessmen.

Similarly, the matter was also raised with Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Federal Commerce Minister Amin Faheem, but the contacts did not materialise the required results, according to the press release.