LAHORE, Aug 28: The proposal for starting a bus service to Munabao on the Sindh-Rajasthan border and between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar has been shelved for the time being while new services to Kabul and Kandhar are planned by Islamabad.

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) has been directed to explore the possibility of starting bus services to Kabul and Kandhar from Peshawar and Quetta.

The initiative is said to be linked with Afghanistan President Karzai's recent trip to Islamabad. At present, passengers disembark at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and walk to the other side to catch another transport. With the PTDC bus service between the two countries, travellers would be spared a troublesome walk.

While no official is willing to pinpoint reasons for the delay in new bus services to India and Srinagar, it is learnt that such services cannot be undertaken in isolation as measures for boosting relations are related to many basic issues.

Officials said the existing twice a week Lahore-New Delhi bus service would not be affected by any delay in opening new road routes between India and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the proposal for a Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service is said to have been withdrawn because the two governments could not agree on documents required by passengers for travelling between the two points.