KHYBER
Import and export besides transit trade was discontinued at Torkham border when entry of Afghan drivers was restricted at the crossing on Tuesday without proper visa and passport.
It is to be mentioned here that after Army Public School on 16 December, 2015 mishap, passport and visa policy had been made compulsory at Torkham border; but the drivers had been exempted from proper visa but producing passport at the border was made compulsory for them.
As per border security and custom officials approximately 800 trucks daily cross the Torkham border in the form of carrying export or import goods.
Assistant Director, Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) Torkham Yasir Arafat confirmed the news and said as per the government policy, besides general passengers, truckers had been asked to get a visa while crossing into Pakistan via the Torkham border.
Previously deadlines had been set for the truckers to acquire legal travelling documents but ironically the drivers did not take it seriously, he added.
The custom official in Torkham said that because of the restriction, import stopped and in reaction, the Afghan border security officials suspended entry of export loaded trucks at Torkham crossing.
As a good gesture, the Pak officials granted permission to the fresh fruits loaded vehicles drivers to cross in, however the Afghan custom officials denied their entry and asked for general permission to the other cargo drivers.
Afghan border officials resented the visa policy for the Afghan drivers and said it will suffer bilateral trade at the border.
They maintained that the Pak embassy and councils didn’t issue visas to the Afghan citizens including the drivers that multiplied their miseries.
On the other hand, office bearers of transport association Torkham and other trade unions flayed the visa policy for the truckers and said it would certainly badly affect the business activities at the border.
Because of suspension of export and import at Torkham crossing, long queues of loaded trucks could be witnessed at the roads on both sides of the border.
