ISLAMABAD: The Sen­a­te Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions on Monday noted that the closure of Torkham Border was incurring serious business losses to traders and the matter needed to be resolved urgently.

Acknow­ledging that border management was a sensitive issue, chairman of the committee Senator Taj Afridi said the body will not interfere in any security related matters while stressing that traders must be facilitated.

Briefing the committee, a senior member of Pakistan-Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Qazi Zahid Hussain said that prior to Covid-19 pandemic, 8,000 t0 10,000 vehicles moved across the border but now the situation is different due to a backlog.

The backlog relates to the scanning of 2,000 containers at the Torkham border while 7,000 to 8,000 containers were stuck at Karachi ports, he said.

However, briefing the committee, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police officials said the backlog was due to slow pace of work since Covid-19 SOPs were being followed. Lack of parking space at Torkham border was causing long queue of loaded trucks, the police official added.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2020