PESHAWAR
Businessmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan have welcomed resumption of bilateral trade between the two brotherly neighboring countries after a hiatus of almost nine days.
In a joint press statement issued here on Friday, Director Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), Ziaul Haq Sarhadi and Co-Chairman PAJCCI, Khan Jan Alkozai highly hailed re-opening of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It merits to mention here that the Torkhem border was closed on 6th September in wake of a dispute over construction near the border that also led to cross firing between the two forces. Later, the Pakistani authorities completely closed the border for all kinds of crossings.
The nine days impasse caused lining up of thousands of goods laden trucks on both sides of the divide, destroying perishable goods like fresh fruits, vegetable, poultry, meat, juices etc. On Friday (September 15) morning after a successful round of dialogue between the Pakistani and Afghan authorities, Torkham Border was reopened for passage of all kinds of traffic.
“It’s a good news for business community that border has been opened and trade resumed between the two countries,” observed both Ziaul Haq Sarhadi and Khan Jan Alkozai. The trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan is centuries old and will keep on going for indefinite period, benefitting hundreds of thousands of people in both the countries, they observed.
The PAJCCI office bearers stressed the need that trade should not be stopped in wake of any dispute between the two countries. Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said the recent closure of border has inflicted a loss of around three million US dollars on businessmen of both the countries due to rotting of perishable goods.
The businessmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan were of the opinion that promotion of commercial activities is serious need of both the countries and will promote trade at regional level, creating livelihood for large number of people.
They also urged the quarters concerned to intensify checking procedure instead of stopping trade over reports of misuse of transit trade facility. The business community, they continued, is prepare for full cooperation with concerned departments in both
Pakistan and Afghanistan for proper security checking and curbing of smuggling. Continuation of trade from Torkhem will allow Pakistan to expand reach of its goods to markets of Central Asian Republics and even to some European countries.
Similarly, they went on to say, the recent initiative of allowing passage of Afghanistan bound China shipment through Torkhem under UN’s Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) Convention is a new opening and will bring a lot of business for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
PAJCCI office bearers expressed the hope that thousands of stranded trucks at Torkhem borders will reach to their destinations within three to four days after resumption of trade.
