Passport, visa for transporters: SCCI says new condition to hurt Pak-Afghan trade

PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has expressed concern over new condition of valid passport and visa for drivers and cleaners carrying Afghanistan-bounded goods consignments via Torkham border.

In a statement issued here on Friday, SCCI said the interior minister had made a must a valid passport for drivers and cleaners, transporting goods vehicles to Afghanistan via Torkham border from February 20 and issued instructions to border management in this regard.

He said the decision couldn’t be in the best interest of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the business community on both sides of the border, and hence should be withdrawn immediately.

The SCCI said the bilateral trade volume between Pak-Afghan currently stood at less than one billion dollars. It feared that if the government couldn’t review its policies on trade with Afghanistan, the volume would further go down.

It maintained that the government policy was not favourable for trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan as both countries business community had suffered from those unilateral decisions.

The SCCI Vice-President Manzoor Elahi said the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) 2010 would expire on February 11, 2021.

However, he said there was no progress on signing a new ATTA while on the other hand, the FC stationed at Torkham border had issued instructions to Customs authorities for disallowing driver and cleaners of goods transport to cross the border without having a valid passport and visa after Feb 20, which is highly worrisome and unfavourable for bilateral and transit trade between the neighbouring countries.

The chamber office-bearer believed that the consultation was not made before making ATTA 2010 which had brought negative impacts on bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Now, he added, the decision to disallow goods transporters from crossing the border without having a valid passport and visa would affect the trade between them, demanding its withdrawal while keeping in view the best interests of both countries and business community.

He also asked the government to take relevant stakeholders on board before signing on a new ATTA between the two countries so that it has long-lasting impacts on Pak-Afghan bilateral and transit trade.