GILGIT: Fourteen Pakistani citizens stranded in China for the last two months amid stringent Covid lockdowns were brought home through Khunjerab Pass on Wednesday.

They were brought back after Gilgit-Baltistan’s home secretary took up the matter with relevant officials in the foreign ministry and Pakistan’s embassy in Beijing.

The home secretary, Iqbal Hussein Khan, said he was informed that some Pakistani traders had been trapped for the last two months in the Kashgar city of China’s north-west Xinjiang region due to Covid restrictions. “We are keeping them for quarantine according to the health department and National Institute of Health’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) at a local hotel of Aliabad in Hunza. They can go home after spending the recommended time,” he said.

For transportation, lodging and the well-being of these people, special arrangements have been made with the help of Hunza’s local administration.

Ali Mustafa, a trader in GB and one of the stranded citizens, told Dawn that he and 13 other Pakistani citizens had travelled to China earlier this year, but a Covid lockdown in October left them stranded in Xinjiang. He said they had gone to China to transport goods to Pakistan through the Khunjerab Pass.

Amid the lockdown, all activity remained suspended in Xinjiang, goods purchased in China couldn’t be transported to Pakistan and people’s movement was restricted, he said. He said they could still be in China if a special vehicle of the Chinese government had not dropped them at Khunjerab Pass on Wednesday.

Bilal Khawaja, another trader, said Pakistani traders, particularly GB citizens, had been facing billions of rupees in losses as goods remained stuck in China.

Meanwhile, the suspension of customs clearance at the Sost dry port also caused delays in the transportation of goods from China to Pakistan.

The Khunjerab Pass — the highest paved Sino-Pak border at 15,500 feet above sea level — remains closed for four months from December to March under a border protocol agreement signed between the two countries. The route — closed in November 2019 after the outbreak of Covid-19 in China — was opened two and a half years later in June this year under a new agreement and SOPs only to transport goods from China to Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2022