KHYBER: Road closures prompted by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s march on Islamabad have disrupted the country’s trade with Afghanistan via Torkham border crossing.

Sources at Torkham told Dawn that not a single vehicle with export items made in the Punjab province had reached Peshawar or Torkham due to road blockades since Nov 23 when the federal and Punjab governments closed almost all highways and motorways, leading to Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, by shipping containers.

They said that the vehicles loaded with fresh fruits, coal and soapstone imported from Afghanistan were mostly stranded at different locations in Peshawar due to the closure of arteries.

Sources said that confiscation of a large number of containers by police for road closures had also disrupted transportation of trade goods to and from Punjab.

Goods vehicles stranded in Peshawar

Mujeebullah Shinwari, the newly-elected president of Torkham Customs Clearing Agents’ Association, told Dawn that a major chunk of the imported coal and soapstone was transported to cement and other factories in different cities of Punjab, while Afghan grapes and apples were taken to fruit markets in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

He added that a large quantity of export goods were brought in from industries in Punjab, so the transportation of those and import items was hit hard by road closures in the last four to five days, causing huge losses to both traders and transporters.

Mr Shinwari said that prior to the Nov 24 call by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for the march on Islamabad, an average of 300 vehicles used to take goods to Afghanistan via the Torkham border daily, while vehicles bringing in items from Afghanistan would total around 250.

“The number of goods vehicles travelling to and from Afghanistan has dropped to just 150 since the recent road closures, with the movement for heavy vehicles beyond Attock being completely halted,” he said.

The association leader regretted that traders and transporters faced an uncertain situation.

Local clearing agent Jamshed Khan told Dawn that the imposition of two per cent exports cess by the provincial government had also led to the diversion of over 90 per cent of Afghan transit trade from Torkham to Chaman border crossing in the Balochistan province, causing huge losses for traders and transporters here.

He argued that in retaliation, the Afghan government hiked taxes on fruits and vegetables from Pakistan, reducing their export.

Customs officials at Torkham border crossing confirmed a decline in the trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the last few days and attributed it to the ongoing closure of major arteries in Punjab and around Islamabad due to the PTI’s march on Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024