The future of Pak-Afghan Transit Trade has hit a serious crisis due to the unrealistic policies of security forces’ officials who manage the Afghan border as over 150 trucks loaded petroleum products sit stranded between the Karachi Port and the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham. A national television debate on Monday revealed 30 vehicles were stranded only in Peshawar City Railway Station, 110 km from Jamrud till Torkham and hundreds of others between Karachi and Peshawar. The trucks are loaded with imported petroleum products like lubricated oil, grease and motor oils. The goods are owned by Afghan traders engaged in transit trade for a long time.
After banning NATO supplies, security and secret agency officials have ordered that all goods trucks loaded with petroleum products be stranded. Quarters concerned believe all products aid US-led allied troops and are treating all petroleum products as supplies to NATO. Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industries acting president Zia Ul Haq Sarhadi and Transit traders Association president Haji Gul Afzal Khan president expressed concern over the policies. They said unemployment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was rising after Afghan traders had shifted to alternate routes through Iran and the Central Asian Republics.
The debate pointed out that attacks against NATO trucks had meant supplies were already diminished to 40%. Asked to solve the problem, the traders said supplies being made through proper documents can be verified through internet and concerned supplies and manufacturing companies at Japan, Singapore and other foreign countries. Similarly, government functionaries could compare supplies with old statistics. They said the fall in Afghan transit trade had affected the income of Pakistan Railway, Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan Customs and Karachi Port and called upon the government to resolve the issue at its earliest.
During the debate, KP politicians, including Awami National Party members, were criticised over their silence over Pak Afghan Transit Trade. They said the Punjab leadership from both PPP and PML-N had unanimously encouraged land route trade with India whereas the KP leadership stayed silence as Pak Afghan Transit Trade takes its last breaths. ANP Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour is a Senator since 1989 while staunch rival Haji Ghulam Ali is a Senator for three years but both will fail to resolve the problem. Earlier, the National Logistic Cell and 1995 Negative List affected the transit trade and now the NATO supply ban had created the next problem.
Af-Pak petroleum transit hits snags
