PESHAWAR, Aug 21: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has said that land route export from the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Risalpur could increase the country’s export to Afghanistan.

“Promotion of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the need of the hour and for this purpose all hurdles should be removed. Pakistani exporters should be facilitated in Afghanistan and Afghan traders here,” said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, member executive committee, SCCI.

Similarly, both countries should further simplify their visa procedures and reduce fares of both PIA and Ariyana airlines to facilitate the traders and increase the volume of trade, he said.

Mr Sarhadi said that like in the past, the governments of both countries should restart a luxury bus service. Afghan Mail Service should also be restarted to enable maximum number of traders of both countries to travel between both countries.

Furthermore, the facility of the Red Pass with passports should also be revived, he said.

He said that the Afghan government should simplify import procedure and, particularly, waive the condition of Elm-i-Khabar, a document issued by Afghan Trade commissioners in Peshawar and Chaman.

Obtaining the document, prepared in the light of the papers sent by Afghan importers, was a long and complicated procedure, he said and added: “No country in the world requires this kind of documentation. The abolition of the condition could lead to maximum increase in the trade volume between both countries.”

Similarly, the Afghan government should also revive trade liaison officers at the offices of its trade commissioners at Peshawar and Chaman, he said.

Mr Sarhadi said that both countries should also soften their trade laws.

He said that for the removal of the hurdles, the EPB was required to make commercial attaches more effective.

“Majority of the exporters are least interested in exporting goods to Afghanistan through Iran, as it is 1500 kilometres longer than Pakistani route,” he said.

But, he said, due to wrong policies of the government, the Pakistani route had been deprived of the chance to earn handsome foreign exchange for the country and if the situation remains the same, then Pakistan would lose its market in Afghanistan, he warned.

Pakistani traders and industrialists had also tested their fortune in the new Central Asian market and established trade relations within no time, earning a handsome amount of foreign exchange for the country, but it proved a short term boom, he said.

He said that Chitral district provided shortest access to the Central Asian Republics (CARs). “The distance from Attock Bridge to Chitral is 340 kilometres while the distance from Shahi Bazaar Chitral to Tajikistan is only 200km,” he said.

In 1993, he added, the National Highway Authority conducted the survey of Garam Chishma Ashkasham Highway project to connect Gwadar with Tajikistan through Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan, Malakand, Dir and Chitral. The project would have transformed Peshawar, Mardan, Malakand, Dir and Chitral into an international market.

Now, he said, a proposed project to extend Karakoram Highway to Ashquman and Tajikistan would only increase the distance and prevent the cities of the NWFP from being merged into international market.

According to him, the traders of Central Asia and China used the Chitral route, even during the recent era of the State of Chitral, for travelling to Peshawar and other parts of the Sub-Continent. The communist revolution in Russia closed this route and now after the independence of the Central Asian Republics, Chitral is providing the peaceful and shortest access to them. Badakhshan, an Afghan province bordering Chitral, is a peaceful and hospitable passage for the traders.

He said that the CARs imported 90 items — including food items like rice, sugar, poultry products, mineral water — and garments. Pakistan, he said, had the potential to export the items but still it was far behind other countries in import to the CARs.—PPI