Minister for Commerce Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan said Thursday that the government had also allowed Afghan trucks to carry goods not only to Wahga Border but to bring Pakistani goods on their way back to Afghanistan.
Highlighting details of the decisions to facilitate Afghan Transit Trade after his talks in Kabul, the minister said that Pakistan had reduced the scanning process of Afghan transit cargo from 100% to 20% and now only 20% of the cargo would be subjected to scanning leading to a clearance of 90% of Afghan consignments from 24 to 48 hours. Earlier, 100% of the cargo had to undergo scanning process.
He also highlighted the efforts made by the government of Pakistan to operationalise Pakistan Railways for transit of Afghan cargo. Pakistan Railways is in the process of arranging to carry 400 containers of Afghan transit cargo per week to Torkham and Chaman by July 1, 2015. He said the government had taken these decisions to address the concerns and long-standing demands of Afghan traders.
The minister said that the government of Pakistan attached utmost significance to its ties with Afghanistan and wanted to improve its economic relations with its brotherly country. He said it was the earnest desire of Pakistan to promote economic integration with Afghanistan which would bring prosperity not only to the two countries but also to the entire region.