LANDI KOTAL: The border crossings at Torkham in Khyber Agency, Kharlachi in Kurram Agency and Ghulam Khan in North Waziristan Agency remained closed on Monday for the fourth consecutive day bringing the trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan came to a complete halt.

Long queues of trucks and containers loaded with Pakistani export items were reported over almost 10 kilometers on both sides of the border.

Torkham Custom Clearing Agents Association president Hayatullah Shinwari told Dawn that most of the stranded vehicles were loaded with cement, steel girders, flour and fresh fruit, especially oranges and kinos.

He said all private and customs offices along with local taxi stand, shops and restaurants were also closed as security forces didn’t allow anyone except local residents to go close to the border crossing.

Long queues of vehicles with cement, steel girders, flour, fruits stranded

Mr. Shinwari said local traders had suffered huge losses, while the customs department was also losing exorbitant revenue on a daily basis.

He said private offices were concerned about a lack of security for their offices due to the closure of the border crossing and said some unidentified people burgled a mobile phone shop and took away the entire stock.

The association’s president said local authorities were informed about the burglary but the burglars had yet to be traced.

Meanwhile, senior vice president of the Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ziaul Haq Sarhadi also complained about the closure of the border and demanded its immediate reopening.

He told Dawn that the repeated closure of Torkham border since April last year had caused a drastic reduction in the volume of exports of Pakistani goods and edibles to Afghanistan.

“We have already lost a major chunk of the Afghan Transit Trade imports via Karachi sea port to Iran’s Chabahar port due to our flawed policies and now, we are losing our exports and customs revenue due to the repeated closures of border with Afghanistan,” he said.

The chamber president said there was no denying the importance of national interest but good trade relations with neighbours was also imperative for the country’s robust economy.

He said unfortunately, the government had failed to enhance the country’s trade with Afghanistan and that the national annual export target had plunged from $2.5 billion to just $1 billion due to restrictions on the trading activities between the two countries.

Mr. Sarhadi urged the authorities to reopen Torkham border without delay saying the border authorities in collaboration with intelligence and law-enforcement agencies have established a foolproof mechanism to check the movement of suspected people into the country.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017