KABUL – The government and business community of Afghanistan welcomed Pakistan’s move of allowing trucks held up at Karachi port to travel to Afghanistan.
According to an Afghanistan based news agency, the decision came after the Pakistani Federal Board of Revenue barred National Logistic Cell (NLC), a semi-government transport firm, from using hired trucks to transport Afghanistan -bound containers in order to check possible smuggling. The move to allow NLC to once more use rented trucks comes after talks between a Pakistani delegation visiting Kabul and Afghan’s Commerce Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi.
For the past seven months, about 9,000 containers, 40 percent carrying food items, belonging to Afghan traders remained stuck in Karachi due to the lack of trucks. “The major reason was the firm’s incapability to transport containers for a lack of vehicles,” Afghan Deputy Minister for Commerce and Industry Ghulam Ali Elaqi said.
Afghan traders needed 500 to 1,000 trucks daily to carry their commercial goods to Afghanistan from Karachi, but the NLC only had 200 trucks, he said. He said that rented trucks were now allowed to take Afghan goods in light of an order issued by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. Stranded containers at Karachi port should reach Afghanistan within the next two months, the deputy minister said. “We will see what new problems arise in this regard. If Afghans are allowed to take their goods on their own, it is possible all containers will reach Afghanistan in two months,” he said.
