PESHAWAR: Authorities have assured Pakistani and Afghan traders of measures to remove hurdles to trade between the two countries.

Newly-appointed chief collector (customs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Fayyaz Anwar chaired a meeting at the Torkham border on Saturday to discuss issues related to Pak-Afghan trade.

The participants, including Pakistani and Afghan traders and relevant officials, held a “thorough discussion on the performance of relevant public sector institutions along with the problems of Pak-Afghan businessmen,” according to a news release.

The traders highlighted their issues and proposed ways to resolve them.

Traders complain of slow goods clearance at border points

The participants included collector customs (operations) in Peshawar Mohammad Ashfaq, additional collector customs at Torkham Mohammad Rizwan, additional collector customs in Peshawar Rizwan Mehmood, deputy collector (operations) at Torkham Asma Javed, assistant collectors at Torkham Imad Mohib, superintendent Siddique Akbar, PAJCCI coordinator and director Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, KCCI president Syed Jawad Hussain Kazmi, and members of the Torkham Customs Agents Association.

The representatives of NLC, FC, police and other security departments, who were also in attendance, made several suggestions to remove obstacles to Pak-Afghan trade.

Customs officials from Torkham briefed Mr Anwar about their visit to the newly-constructed NLC terminal.

Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, who is also the president of Frontier Customs Agents Association (FCAA) and former senior vice-president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), called for steps to ensure smooth Pak-Afghan trade as well as transit trade.

He said traders had no issues with the customs department at Torkham, Ghulam Khan and Kharlachi border points.

Mr Sarhadi, however, said officials of border management and other institutions took a lot of time for goods checking causing difficulties for traders.

He said while containers of Afghan transit trade were cleared in 10-12 days at Karachi Port, the demurrage charges were imposed on them due to the slow process of their clearance.

The FCCA president also complained that official orders for cross-stuffing hadn’t been implemented causing the levying of heavy charges on containers.

He suggested that goods of Afghan transit trade should be moved from Karachi to Torkham by the Pakistan Railways along with a bonded carrier service.

Mr Sarhadi urged authorities to allow the filing of goods documents at Azakhel dry port for trouble-free functioning of the customs clearing agents in the province.

Chief Collector (customs) Fayaz Anwar told traders that all possible measures would be taken to facilitate cross-border trade.

He said the customs department knew the problems facing the business community and would strive to resolve them on a priority basis.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023