PESHAWAR, Sept 10: The NWFP trade and business experienced further recession during the last one year failing to materialize hopes of getting benefit from the rehabilitation process undertaken in Afghanistan during the post-Sept 11 situation.

“In original, it appeared to be a really difficult year,” said Bashir-ud-Din, a local trader involved in import and export business with Afghanistan.

The benefit, said Imtiaz Khalil, an industrialist, the local industrialists were expecting from the under progress reconstruction works in the war-ravaged Afghanistan could not be turned into reality.

Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, a leading exporter from Peshawar, said that the business had never been as bad as it appeared to be during the last one year. “It appears that as if Twin Towers have fallen on us,” he added.

According to him, before the Sept 11, 2001, he used to export 60 to 100 containers every month from the Peshawar dry port side by side small consignments of items exported by air or through trucks with India via Lahore or Karachi.

“Now the situation has gone so bad that last month I dispatched only seven containers and before that in July only nine containers,” said Sarhadi.

The dreams of seeing Peshawar becoming main trade centre getting revived its traditional stature for being on the meeting point of two regions — Central and South Asia — could not be turned into reality after the local trade and business circles lost much of the business opportunities to Lahore and Karachi.

The carpet industry, which had helped NWFP register a marked improvement in its exports during the last three years, also lost its charm and boost after a large number of Afghan skilled labour and weavers, involved in carpet weaving industry, left for their homeland.

Out of some 60,000 expert Afghan weavers earlier working in NWFP — with majority in Peshawar and its surroundings — over 50,000 have gone back after finding little hope of getting peace restored to their war-torn country.

The carpet industry is not the only industry hit by voluntary repatriation of Afghans. The NWFP labour market and real estate business are the other two sectors which have also experienced recessionary trends as a result of Afghans’ repatriation.

Prices of properties and land, said Razzaq, a real estate dealer, gone down manifold. So is the case with rental prices of houses which were available in abundance in the provincial metropolis after a large number of Afghans left for their home.

“The much wanted return of Afghans has, at least for the time being, resulted in a major slump causing setback to several sectors of trade and business,” said Rauf, another property dealer.

Businessmen believed that NWFP lost initiative — which had come to their way in the backdrop of restoration of normalcy in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s fall — due to Lahore and Gujranwala products’ greater competitive value against those manufactured in the Frontier province.

Afghans, said Rohail, a local trader, were well connected with the Afghan businessmen hence the advantage Peshawar’s businessmen were expecting originally went to the business circles of other provinces.

Sarhadi said that due to wrong policies of Islamabad, Iran and India were making inroads in the Afghan markets. “Iranian cement is preferred more in Afghanistan due to its low price in comparison with Pakistan’s cement,” he said.