KHYBER
Poor performance of the various departments, being functioned at Torkham border has annoyed provincial minister of relief and rehabilitation Taj Muhammad Afridi and he urged it to coordinate work to enhance trade at the crossing.
Speaking in high level meeting pertaining improvement of trade held at zero point in Torkham on Tuesday, the minister said that previously in manual system along with least government departments, the export via Torkham border was in billion dollars however presently with introduction of WEBOC and other modern systems, the trade was decreasing day by day that put question mark at the efficiency of various departments.
He expressed his dissatisfaction over the presentation, given by custom official and said it was contrary to the prevailing situation on the ground.
“Through slow pace of clearance, export through Torkham crossing is falling from billion to million dollars, which is a matter of concern,” he added.
It was needed to create coordination among the governmental departments in Torkham so that the export clearance process could be carried out quickly; he added and urged to adopt all necessary initiatives to provide relief to the Afghani patients and general pedestrians.
Earlier, the officials including custom, National Logistic Cell (NLC) and border security personnel briefed the provincial minister and said that cleared hundreds of export loaded vehicles although unavailability of parking lot in custom house across the border in Torkham
They said one exit and entry at the border also suffered traffic movement that needed to be separated for the smooth transfer of merchandise commodities.
The officials also suggested convening a joint moot of all stakeholders of Pakistan Afghanistan to address the problems being faced by them.
Assistant Commissioner, Custom Yawar Hayat, Col Aziz of NLC, Border security officials, Deputy Commissioner, Khyber Abdunnasir, District Police Officer Saleem Abbas Kuachvi, Federal Investigative Agency official Yasir Arafat and others attended the meeting.
